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Heralds of the Morning 




"Watchman, what of the night?' 
"The morning cometh." 



HERALDS OF THE 
—MORNING^— 



The Meaning of the Social and Polit- 
ical Problems of To-day and the Sig- 
nificance of the Great Phenomena in 
Nature :::::::::::: 



"Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman 
said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire ye: 

turn ye, come."— Isaiah. 



BY 

ASA OSCAR TAIT 



1912 



PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CAL. 
PORTLAND, OREGON KANSAS CITY, MO. CALGARY, ALBERTA 



X* 



£ 



-c& 



Copyrighted 1899, 1905, 1906, 1912, by 

A. O. TAIT 

All rights reserved. 



£C!.A316708 



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CONTENTS. 



Chapter Page 

Foreword 13 

I. Watchman, What of the Night? .... 17 
II. He Will Come Again . . . . . .27 

III. This Same Jesus 38 

IV. Shall so Come in Like Manner .... 45 
V. We May Not Know the Hour 52 

VI. Know That He Is Near 56 

VII. Watch Ye Therefore . . . . . .61 

VIII. Great Deceptions 67 

IX. Prophetic Outlines 80 

X. The Good News of the Kingdom to All the World 84 

XI. A Eemarkable Century 88 

XII. The Bible Among the People 113 

XIII. The Gospel's Progress 123 

XIV. What Many People Shall Say . . . .141 
XV. The Prevalence of Crime — A Sign of Our Times 158 

XVI. Judgment Is Turned Away Backward . . . 166 

XVII. The Earth Is Filled with Violence . . .186 

XVIII. The Social Vice . . . . . . .195 

XIX. Maintaining the Form, but Denying the Power . 210 

XX. Lovers of Pleasure 224 

XXI. Ye Have Heaped Treasure for the Last Days . 231 
XXII. And the Nations Were Angry .... 258 
XXIII Divine Restraint of the Spirit of War . . . 310 

XXIV. The Voice of the Elements 320 

XXV. The Testimony of the Earth . . . . . 348 

XXVI. When Ye Shall See All These Things . . . 336 

XXVII. And There Shall Be a Time of Trouble . . 370 

XXVIII. The Earth Was Lightened by His Glory . . 382 

XXIX. Our Refuge and Fortress . . . . .391 

XXX. In This Generation 398 

XXXI. The Triumphant Victory and Everlasting Reward 406 

vii 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



The morning cometh . Frontispiece 

''Sing unto the Lord with the harp" . . . ... . . 16 

"Watchman, what of the night?" (chapter heading) 17 

Society banded into factions .......... 18 

The dove of peace lies wounded and dying . . . . . . 19 

What will be the end of all these threatening dangers? . . . . 21 

The long roll sounding .22 

The Omnipotent Power that balances the worlds in space .... 23 

Earthquakes and tidal waves . . . . . . . . . . 24 

He will come again (chapter heading) 27 

"All that are in the graves shall hear His voice" 28 

Drifting toward the vortex .......... 30 

Heralds trumpeting the morning 31 

The Consoler 33 

Shoals and rocks along the farther shore . . . . . . . . 37 

"This same Jesus" (chapter heading) 38 

"At the pool of Bethesda" 39 

' ' Behold how He loved him ! " 40 

Shall so come in like manner (chapter heading) . . . . . . 45 

' ' And He shall send His angels " . . 46 

1 ' Shall so come in like manner " ■ . . . . . . . . . 47 

We may not know the hour (chapter heading) . . . . . . 52 

' ' The swelling of the buds in the spring-time " 53 

"As a thief in the night " . 54 

Know that He is near (chapter heading) . . . . . . 56 

Watch ye therefore (chapter heading) ........ 61 

The magicians in Moses' time .......... 64 

Great deceptions (chapter heading) 67 

A charmer 73 

The shepherd 79 

Prophetic outlines (chapter heading) 80 

The good news of the kingdom sent to all the world (chapter heading) . . 84 

A remarkable century (chapter heading) 88, 89 

Edward Entwistle (the first locomotive engineer) . . . . . . 90 

The "Rocket" (the engine which Mr. Entwistle drove) 91 

Overland in the middle of the nineteenth century . . . . . . 92 

The DeWitt Clinton engine and train ........ 93 

The 20th Century Limited 93 

The latest ' ' most powerful locomotive in the world " . . . . . 94 

The first "working" telegraph instrument 95 

The first and second East River bridges 96 

First steamer carrying mail across the Atlantic ...... 98 

Steamer ' ' Lusitania ' ' docking at New York . . . . . . . 99 

Transatlantic steamship ' ' Olympic, ' ' sister ship of the ' ' Titanic " . . 100 

A great railway station ........... 101 

The old "Franklin hand-press" . . .102 

The Hoe double octuple printing-press 103 

viii 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IX 

Robert Fulton 104 

Samuel F. B. Morse . 104 

Peter Cooper 105 

Charles Goodyear 105 

Sir Henry Bessemer 106 

C. H. M'Cormick 106 

Guglielmo Marconi 107 

James Watt 107 

Thomas A. Edison 108 

Cyrus W. Field 108 

The "Great Eastern" laying the Atlantic cable 109 

Girdling the globe by wireless 110 

M. Edouard Belin and his telephotography apparatus . . . . Ill 

Outdoor picture transmitted by telephotography ...... 112 

The Bible among the people (chapter heading) ...... 113 

Combined harvester and thrasher 114 

Hammer, anvil, and forge . . . 115 

"Boots and shoes were slowly made by hand" 115 

The steam-hammer at work . . .116 

"The simple needle and thimble were the implements" ..... 118 

"To-day she has a machine" . . . 119 

' ' The carpenter did everything by hand " . . . . . . . 120 

Eailroad train passing through the old Chinese Wall ..... 121 

The Gospel's progress (chapter heading) 123 

John Eliot 123 

College class training for the missionary field ...... 124 

Bible House, New York 125 

Count Nicholas Ludwig Zinzendorf . . . . . . . . . 126 

Bartholomew Ziegenbalg ........... 126 

Christian Frederick Schwartz .......... 127 

John Scudder, M. D 127 

Bible House, London . . .- 128 

Vestibule, Bible House, London 129 

Corner on bound stock floor, Bible House, London 131 

Cases of Scriptures, warehouse, London ........ 133 

William Carey . 134 

Henry Martyn ............. 135 

Reginald Heber 136 

Robert Morrison 136 

Adoniram Judson ............ 137 

Ann Hasseltine Judson . . . . . . . . . . .137 

Bible cart, Japan ............ 138 

Bible boat, Siam' 139 

" What many people shall say " (chapter heading) 141 

Mary L. Whately 142 

Samuel Gobat 142 

Robert Moffat 143 

John Williams 143 

David Livingstone ............ 144 

John C. Patteson 145 

Griffith John 146 

John G. Paton 146 

John Wilson, M. D 147 

John Wilkinson ............. 147 

Alexander Duff 148 



X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

J. Hudson Taylor 149 

Thomas J. Comber 150 

William Duncan . . . . . 150 

Alexander M. Mackay 151 

Egerton E. Young 151 

Samuel Adjai Crowther 152 

James Chalmers 153 

John Kenneth Mackenzie, M. D 154 

Mary Eeed 155 

Pandita Eamabai 156 

The prevalence of crime a sign of our times (chapter heading) . . . 158 

"The same day that Lot went out of Sodom" ...... 159 

"As it was in the days of Noah" 160 

"Judgment is turned away backward" (chapter heading) .... 166 

"The earth is filled with violence" (chapter heading) ..... 186 

"The social vice" (chapter heading) 195 

"He that is without sin among you" ........ 208 

Maintaining the form: but denying the power (chapter heading) . . . 210 

"How the great leading 'Christian America' is spending her money" . 218, 219 

"Lovers of pleasure" (chapter heading) ........ 224 

"Ye have heaped treasure for the last days" (chapter heading) . . . 231 

An alley of poverty, Chicago 236 

Lodging-house for the poor .......... 237 

' ' Misery . . . exists in these sweat-shops " 249 

"And the nations were angry" (chapter heading) ..... 258, 259 

British navy 263 

War-ships of the world . . . 264 

Admiral Farragut's Flagship .......... 266 

Monitor "Florida" 267 

Battle-ship ' ' Connecticut ' ' on her trial run 268 

The new 16-inch breech-loading rifle for seacoast defense .... 270 

Target for naval gun practise . . . . . . . • . .271 

British Battle-ship ' ' Dreadnaught " ........ 272 

American battle-ship ' ' Delaware " 273 

British cruiser "Indomitable" 274 

Submarine torpedo-boat "Narwhal" . . . 275 

Battery at siege of Sebastopol . . . . . . . . . . 276 

Modern coast defense mortar battery ........ 277 

Twenty years' growth of the armored ship . 281 

Hudson Maxim 282 

The "Monitor" in battle with the "Merrimac" 283 

Armor-plate pierced by shell from modern cannon ...... 284 

Actual penetration of shell from big cannon 285 

The Eodman cannon of Civil War times 288 

Buffington-Crozier disappearing gun of to-day ...... 289 

Modern three-inch field gun .......... 292 

Gun crew operating one pounder rapid-fire gun on deck of ship . . . 293 

The infantry rifle of 1861 296 

The infantry rifle of 1909 297 

Claude Grahame- White making a flight down Executive Ave., Washington, D. C. 302 

The six-passenger aeroplane-cab ......... 303 

Aeroplane Gun 305 

Divine restraint of the spirit of war (chapter heading) ... . . . 310 

The voice of the elements (chapter heading) 320, 321 

Eruption of Mont Pelee 323 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



XI 



Union Street, San Francisco, after the earthquake of 1906 .... 325 

Eedwood tree split by San Francisco earthquake of 1906 .... 326 

Work of the Hongkong typhoon of 1908 328 

Village overthrown by Galabrian earthquake of 1907 329 

Work of storm in Tahiti, 1906 . . . 331 

"The whole land shall be desolate" 332 

1 1 The tornado . . . whirling with terrific fury " . . . . . 333 

Wreckage after the hurricane of Ponce, Porto Kico, 1908 .... 334 

Work -of tornado in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, 1908 . . . 335 

"Hast thou seen the treasures of the hail?" 337 

Breckenridge Hall after Galveston storm 338 

Merced Tempi?, Valparaiso, after her earthquake of 1906 .... 340 

Harbor Street, Kingston, Jamaica, after her earthquake of 1907 . . . 342 

Messina before her earthquake of 1908 ........ 344 

Street in Messina after her earthquake of 1908 ...... 345 

The testimony of the earth (chapter heading) ...... 348, 349 

Crop-destroying insects 348, 349, 350, 352, 354, 356 

"When ye shall see all these things" (chapter heading) ..... 386 

"And there shall be a time of trouble" (chapter heading) .... 370 

The earth was lightened by his glory (chapter heading) . . . . . 382 

"I saw another angel . . . having great power" ..... 385 

"The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose" . . . . 390 

"Our refuge and fortress" (chapter heading) 391 

He brought His people out of that dark land 394 

In this generation (chapter heading) ........ 398 

Measuring the movements of the heavenly bodies ...... 402 

The navigators locating their vessel . . . . . . . . . 403 

"Jesus is soon to be seen coming in the clouds of heaven" .... 405 

The triumphant victory and everlasting reward (chapter heading) . 406, 407 

"I John saw the Holy City" 414 



"Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant 
knoweth not what his lord doeth : but I have called you 
friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I 
have made known unto you. 
■ ' ' Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and or- 
dained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that 
your fruit should remain : that whatsoever ye shall ask of the 
Father in My name, He may give it you. ' ' — The Apostle John. 

"Kemember the former things of old: for I am God, and 
there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, 
declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times 
the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall 
stand, and I will do all My pleasure." — Isaiah. 



FOREWORD 



AMONG the most expressive and beautiful words of the 
English language is the noble, tender term, "Home." 
Among the sweetest songs ever sung by loving lips is ' ' Home, 
Sweet Home," given to a needy world by one who never 
had a home, yet whose heart ever cried out for what the 
world never gave him. 'His very homelessness voiced 
sweeter and deeper the longing of every true human heart. 

Among the blessed occurrences that surround the home, 
"be it ever so humble," is the "Home-coming" of loved 
ones. This is especially true when a loving father has been 
long gone and is about to return. What thought and action 
it arouses and inspires. How it quickens heart and eye 
and hand and foot. How often and anxious the inquiries 
of the mother as to when he is coming. What prepara- 
tions are begun to welcome him. How short the days seem 
to do the work which ought to be done. How long the days 
seem when the separation is brought to mind. How slowly 
roll Time's chariot wheels. Over and over say the chil- 
dren: "Father is coming, the best, the strongest, the wisest 
friend on earth. He is bringing back for each one of us 
some beautiful and appropriate gift. He has sent various 
gifts during his absence, he will bring better ones at this 
home-coming, and bestow them with his own hands ; and 
best of all, he himself will come. We shall look into the eyes 
that have so many years looked upon us in love. We shall 
be clasped by the hand that helped and sheltered and 
shielded us in trouble and danger. He will call us by name, 
fold us in his arms, and kiss us glad greeting. And then, 
too, he will take us to a better home for a while till this 
home is made far more beautiful than we have ever 
dreamed it could be made." 

Thus the thoughts of the loving children, run on, and 
the glad mother recounts the nobleness of character in 

13 



14 FOREWORD 

times antedating the children. At last preparation is over, 
the last touch is given, and mother and children lovingly, 
impatiently wait. Surely there is no event in that home 
like the home-coming of the one who is to all the others 
chiefest in the household. 

We all know it to be at least ideally true ; yet it is but 
a faint picture of a greater, more far-reaching," more 
blessed, spiritual fact, around which cluster all the greater 
glorious events of the Christian life. 

"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." He 
made it to be a glorious home forever for the family of 
man. But sin entered, and the home was marred, and the 
trail of the serpent may be traced over the fairest of earth's 
domain. With the entrance of sin came death; and the 
earth, designed as the abode of the living, would have be- 
come a vast charnel-house had, it not been for the constant, 
abundant blessings of grace poured out upon it from the 
inexhaustible storehouse on high. 

"When the fulness of the time came," the Son of God, 
with all-glorious divinity veiled in humanity, truly God 
and truly man, came unto His own, but "His own received 
Him not." The vast majority would not receive Him as 
the only Saviour. But earnest souls did receive Him, and 
found Him to be the Son of God, the Saviour, Friend, and 
Brother of men. 

Before He went away, He told them He would come 
again, — that His going away would be like that of a noble- 
man, who "went into a far country to receive for himself 
a kingdom, and to return." As priest on the Father's 
throne, Jesus Christ, through angelic and human ministers, 
has been gathering out subjects for His everlasting king- 
dom — this earth made new by God's creative power. That 
work is about completed ; the long roll of the ages is nearly 
finished; the characters inscribed "before the foundation 
of the world" "in the Lamb's book of life" are nearly all 
wrought out ; the tested and polished stones for the eternal, 
spiritual temple of God are nearing the end of their num- 



FOREWORD 15 

bering ; the gifts of His Spirit, brought anew into exercise 
in His church, will soon perfect that church, that He may 
present her to Himself, a beautiful church, "not having 
spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing," but "holy and with- 
out blemish," clad in the robes of His own glory. And then 
comes the Home-coming of the Master, the triumphant, glo- 
rious finale of all earth's sorrow and travail. The Master 
of the house comes to remove for a time to the heavenly 
mansions His loved ones, while the marred and blasted 
earth passes through its last stage of disintegration prior 
to its re-creation as the eternal home of the souls saved 
by grace. "The bondservant [of sin, Satan and his own] 
abideth not in the house forever: the Son [Christ and His 
own] abideth forever. ' ' And Christ is coming to complete 
the great and all-absorbing work of the universe, the vin- 
dication of the character of God and the salvation of every 
trusting, faithful soul. 

And, reader, this unworthy foreword only serves as an 
introduction to the pages following, written by my friend 
and brother, Asa Oscar Tait. In them are arrayed some 
of the many evidences of God's word which show that 
the great Home-coming of our Lord and Master is nigh. 
In plainest, clearest language, by illustration and quota- 
tion, are the evidences rehearsed, fortified, and demon- 
strated. "Christ is coming" is the fitting close to every 
chapter. The whole work is vibrant with the intensity 
of the times through which we are passing. Read its pages, 
ponder its sublime and awful facts, receive its truth; and 
then, when the great drama shall have closed, may you be 
among those who shall, with glad hearts filled with heav- 
enly melody, welcome the Home-coming of the King. 




Editorial Rooms "Signs of the Times/' 
Mountain Vieiv, Cat. 




I ANY serious and perplexing % 
problems, social and political, 
are confronting the world. 
These problems are not mere theories in 
the minds of fanatics, neither are they con- 
fined within the narrow limits of one or two nations; but 
thoughtful men everywhere see the dangers that are threat- 
ening the whole world, and are in dread before the alarm- 
ing conditions of our time. As we meet persons on the 
street, in the shop, on board the train, — anywhere and every- 
where, in this nation and in that, — we find them earnestly 
and seriously discussing the portents of danger that thicken 
as the days pass by. 

The great amassing of wealth by a few men in each of 
the various nations of earth is without a parallel in history. 
The consequent murmurings of the discontented classes 
strikingly remind one of the turbulent conditions in France 
on the eve of her great Revolution and Reign of Terror. 

On every one of the three hundred sixty-five days of 
the year, the newspapers come to us laden with their recital 
of crime. Murder is of daily occurrence. Highwa}^ rob- 
bery, bold and arrogant, as well as petty thievery, is a source 

2 17 




"Society has banded itself into factions and organizations, 
each struggling to gain the mastery." 



of continual annoyance, and to many persons it is a cause of 
dread and fear. Embezzlers, defaulters, bribers, and bribe- 
takers have become alarmingly numerous. Millions of dol- 
lars are every year fraudulently taken by these, the basest 
of all methods. 

Men and women are madly chasing after wealth; they 
are recklessly and foolishly seeking enervating pleasures, 
and delving into dissipations ; they hurl their whole beings 
into the ambition to shine and outdo in society, and in these 
and similar worldly pursuits they are constantly being 
plunged into failure. Hence there follows the daily record 
of the suicides who coweringly seek to the embraces of the 
pale monster as a refuge from the despairs they have cre- 
ated in their own breasts. 

Our large cities in particular, and most of the smaller 
places in general, are filled with immorality and vice. 
Drunkenness is every year hurling a vast multitude to the 
lowest depths of debauching degradation. Public houses 
of prostitution disgrace our streets, and to this open shame 
must be added the daily records of broken marriage vows 
along with all the rest of this unspeakable torrent of pol- 
lution. 

18 



WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT? 19 



These social cancers have so completely polluted the 
very fountains of society that many conclude that honesty 
and straightforward integrity are only the ideals of dream- 
ers. The money-god is so supreme in the mind that it is 
confidently asserted that i i every man has his price. ' ' " Only 
approach him in the right way, and offer him the proper 
bribe," it is affirmed, "and he will yield." Everywhere is 
heard the mocking jeer at the thought of any one possess- 
ing absolute virtue, purity, honesty, and integrity. 

Reformers, filled with noble impulses, have sought for 
the cause of all this evil that has come in like a deluge. They 
have attempted to drive out the houses of shame and to 
abolish the dens of vice and crime. But on the very thresh- 
old of their efforts they are ever confronted with the ap- 
palling fact that the officers of the law are to an alarming, 
yes, an overwhelming extent in league with this vile and 
criminal class. Hence the detection and arrest of the crimi- 
nal is becoming more and more difficult. And even if he is 
arrested, technicalities and quibbles, prolonged through one 
court after another, defeat the purpose of the law, and 
make "courts of justice" a mockery. In consequence of 
this condition of things, mobs are becoming more com- 
mon and violent, and lynchings and riotings are rapidly 
increasing; and, incredible though it may seem, men oc- 
cupying high stations in 
life, even editors of some 
of the great journals of 
the time, are uphold- 
ing "this lynch form 
of executing justice." 

It passes without 

COniraCllCLlOn THati "The dove of peace lies wounded and dying." 




20 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

politics have degenerated into a sort of disreputable busi- 
ness, at which men work for the "boodle" there is in it. 
From the lowest offices in the village or township on up to 
many of the highest positions of the state and nation, 
bribery and fraud are freely used to elect the candidate 
who will be the most lavish in dividing the " spoils of of- 
fice" with his political friends, among whom the patron- 
izing corporations and combinations that supply the treas- 
uries of the political bosses may be reckoned as the most 
exacting in their demands. Yet instead of this condition 
of things exciting a healthful and wide-spread sense of in- 
dignation and protest, it is altogether too generally treated 
with jesting and indifference. Even when honest and vig- 
orous effort is put forth by men here and there to bring 
the law-breakers to justice, they are confronted with the 
urgent protest that business is being ruined by attempting 
to punish the " merchant princes." The question is not, 
Are dishonest and defrauding schemes ruining the world? 
but, How may we keep things in line for capturing the 
greatest number of dollars? 

We have been promised that the field of politics would 
produce statesmen — diplomats, who, by their powers of 
arbitration rather than by the sword, would keep the na- 
tions of earth in the highway of peace. Indeed, it has been 
a dearly cherished thought — and all should applaud such 
kindly, humane sentiments — that the civilization of the 
morning of the twentieth century would form an impreg- 
nable fortification, beyond which the barbarities of war 
could never go. But instead of the realization of these 
exalted hopes, we hear the long roll sounding, and the -great- 
est armies that the world has ever known are falling into 
line, and the most formidable navies recorded in history are 



- WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT 



21 



patrolling the seas. The weapons of modern warfare are 

sufficient, it would seem, to 

inspire terror in the bravest 

breast; but notwithstanding 

the destructiveness of the 

present war implements, 

there is no lack of men — and 

women, too, for that matter 

— who are impatiently eager 

to exchange the pursuits of 

peace for the hazardous risks 

of the modern battle-field. 

There is to-day a general 
quarreling and uneasiness 
among the nations, and they 
are straining every resource 
to increase their fortifica- 
tions, armies, and navies. 
Settling like a heavy cloud 
over the minds of men, there 
is a deepening conviction 
that a universal war can not 
be averted. The suddenness 
with which the nations of the 
whole world are inflamed to 
the highest degree of the 
war fever, as well as the triv- 
ial matters that frequently 
arouse these fighting pas- 
sions in men, give evidence 
of the pent-up volcanoes of 

Strife* flUf! fhp fpaT-fnl r-Qv " What is the wolld coming t0? mat wiu be 

OW-llC, dllU Hie ieariUl Cai- the end of all these threatening dangers?" 




22 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

nage and final results, should this international war spirit 
develop into a general conflict, are a source of much 
uneasiness and deep concern. 

When computing the perplexities of open warfare among 
the nations, account must also be taken of the various in- 
ternal factions that threaten the national life of every king- 
dom, empire, and republic. Society has banded itself into 
factions and organizations, each struggling to gain the 
mastery, and this struggle is marked by a notably growing 
intensity and a manifestly increasing belligerent determina- 
tion. All the world powers are contending with their dis- 
contented revolutionary elements at home, yet anxiously 
struggling to keep them in leash for the still greater con- 
test in the field of international strife. 

While these topics of the social and political world are 
presenting so man}^ strange and perplexing features, "old 
mother earth" herself has laid aside her usually quiet habits, 
and is participating in .the general unrest. Cyclones and 
hurricanes, earthquakes and tidal waves, and strikingly 
fearful volcanic action are no longer among the unusual 
things, neither are they confined to a few localities. But 
storm-swept land, bursting mountain, quaking earth, and 
lashing ocean tell us in unmistakable language that the days 
of earth's tranquillity are no more. 

These things, together with others that will sug- 
gest themselves to the reader, are leading many 




"We hear the long roll sounding, and the greatest armies that the world has ever known 
are falling into line." 



WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT? 



23 





1 



"The Omnipotent Power that balances the gi-eat 
systems of worlds in space, can alone stay the mind." 



anxious minds to inquire : 
' ' What is the world coming to ? 
What will be the end of all these 
threatening dangers ? ' ' Book 



after book, discussing the various phases of the situation, is 
published; magazines and papers, devoted entirely to the 
subject of remedying the social and political evils of our 
time, are constantly sent out ; and there is scarcely a speaker 
or a writer, no matter what his field of research or labor, 
but who is frequently drawn aside to give words of caution, 
admonition, or suggestion concerning the common danger. 
But despite all these discussions, and the exposures of 
criminality that are made, the difficulties continue to in- 
crease. As one editor of a leading daily suggests, "Crime 
is exposed, and the criminals are pointed out, but all to no 
purpose." They are still permitted to continue ,in their evil 
career, apparently without shame and beyond remorse. 
Many thoughtful and highly educated men are seriously say- 
ing that unless this deluge of crime, turbulence, and discon- 



24 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



tent can be allayed, the whole world will surely plunge into 
a revolution that will render insignificant the most fearfully 
bloody scenes that history records. 

The foregoing is not a statement of theory, but a presen- 
tation of existing facts. We stand in the dazzling splen- 
dors of the greatest civilization and enlightenment that 
have ever blessed and adorned the world. But rising high 
above the horizon are the black outlines of these foreboding 
clouds that threaten to envelop the entire community of 
nations in the densest darkness that has ever appeared dur- 
ing earth's night-time of sin and crime. 

The scientist seeks for the cause of the frequently re- 
curring volcanic activity, earthquake, cyclone, and storm, 
^■-"~~ but his wisest solutions afford no 

safety. In the presence of na- 
ture ? s sublime and awful 
convulsions, the hand and 
mind of man shrink to 
the infinity of helpless- 
ness. The Omnipotent 
Power that balances the 
great systems of worlds 
in space must be sought, 
as He alone is sufficient 
to breathe into our hearts 
calmness and confidence 
and the strengthening 
powers of courage when 
the most substantial 
structures of men are 
tossed about as grains 

'Earthquakes and tidal waves are no longer unusual things." q£ Saild and the 




WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT? 25 

granite-formed mountains themselves are in quaking up- 
heavals because of the mighty forces that are loosened 
within. The tremblings of earth amid the commotions of 
the elements and the unsettled conditions of society, force 
the conviction, despite ourselves, that here we have no 
secure abiding-place. 

There is no. denying the fact that these conditions, which 
are so apparent in all the world to-day, form a very dark 
picture, and we may seek to close the avenues to the mind 
so that we can not see it ; but shutting the eyes while drift- 
ing toward the vortex, only induces a delusive- dream of 
security, which renders our destruction doubly sure. 

The dark picture that the actual facts disclose needs to 
be seen with a clear and unfaltering eye so that we may 
turn from it to behold, appreciate, and possess the divine 
painting, whose landscape is the blossoming bowers of the 
indescribable Eden, and whose halo of glory is brilliantly 
reflecting the sapphires and emeralds, the jaspers and 
chrysolites of the eternal city of God. 

Despite every foreboding outlook, there is an approach- 
ing day. There are heralds that are unmistakably trump- 
eting the dawn of a morning into which every dazzling 
orb of the universe will flash some splendid rays. He who 
is the "Root and Offspring of David" is also the "bright 
and morning Star," and He has promised to come in per- 
son to put an end eternally to this perplexity, distress, and 
evil. No one who trusts himself to the care of the Omni- 
potent will be involved in the impending ruin. 

To know this great truth of the Lord's second coming 
really and fully, and to have the bright picture of the 
glorious advent become a soul-satisfying reality, lightens 
every dark cloud and dissipates every terrorizing danger of 



26 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



this turbulent world. These dark clouds and threatening 
dangers will then appear as mere atoms that can not mar 
even the horizon of our divinely bequeathed haven of secu- 
rity and power. 

What a consolation it is to know that we have such a 
faithful Friend! What an indescribable peace and rest 
floods the soul as we cast our anchor in the secure harbor 
of Him who is the Almighty ! 

An examination of the sure and living promises of His 
word will disclose to us the fact that these promises are life, 
and joy, and peace, and especially so in this time of strife 
and storm. 



HE WILL COME AGAIN 




4&k 



&K %iU 






CHAPTER TWO 

OOKING at the distressing conditions prevalent in 
the world to-day, and seeing them apart by them- 
selves, the mind is filled with dark forebodings. But 
we should not look upon these dark things alone. They 
should be viewed through the prophecies and promises of 
the word of God. As we turn to that word, we find that 
the second coming of Christ has ever been set forth as 
the cheering banner of hope. The Bible abounds in prom- 
ises of that event. To all who may be led to trust Him 
the Master sends the joyful proclamation: "Let not your 
heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. 
In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not 
so, I would hav e told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, 
and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye 
may be also." John 14: 1-3. 

By studying the latter part of the thirteenth chapter 
of John it will be seen that the Lord, while sitting with His 
disciples at- that memorable "last supper," on the very 
night when He was betrayed to be crucified, had been tell- 
ing them that He was to be taken away from them for a 
time. This statement filled their hearts' with sadness. But 

27 



28 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



the Master does not leave them in de- 
spair. He at once gives, not only to them 
but to us also, that most precious prom- 
ise, ' ' I will come again, and receive you 
unto Myself." 

Again, after the crucifixion, and at 
the time of His ascension, while the 
disciples were yet intently looking 
into the heavens, whither He was go- 
ing, angels of God were commis- 
sioned to say to them: "Ye men of 
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into 
heaven? This same Jesus, which is 
taken up from you into heaven, shall 
so come in like manner as ye have seen 
Him go into heaven." Acts 1 : 11. Note 
the promise. It is "this same Jesus/' 

The disciples had found in Jesus 
the " Desire of all nations." Their 
hungry souls had feasted on the 
words of life that He uttered, and 
they were resting in the inexpress 
ible joy experienced by those who 
are conscious of pardoned sin and 
the invigorating powers of a re- Jf t 
newed life. Naturally they 4 ,., 
desired to have Him remain 
with them. But, although 
they had tasted the bliss 
of a Christian's happy 
experience, they had not 
as yet grown into that 





*" 


"The 


hour 


: ; . ' ■ - 


coming 
which 


in t| 
a 1 1 tH 




are in 
shall 


the gra < 
hear II 



voice." 



HE WILL COME AGAIN 29 

fulness of knowledge and faith that would enable them 
to comprehend all that the Master had been seeking to 
instil into their minds. They did not understand the great 
truth, although it had been so plainly stated by the Saviour, 
"It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not 
away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I 
depart, I will send Him unto you." John 16:7. 

The Lord states His truth in plain language ; but it takes 
time for it to be assimilated by the human mind. And when 
that truth is opposed by prejudices and errors of long 
standing, the task of uprooting them is a most difficult one. 
The idea that at His first advent the Messiah was to estab- 
lish a temporal kingdom, and by force of arms overthrow 
the Romans, thus relieving the Jews from a foreign yoke, 
though a false hope, was dearly cherished and firmly fixed. 
So generally accepted was the belief that Christ was to be 
a temporal king and reign in Judea, that all His teaching 
to the contrary had not fully driven this delusion from the 
minds of even the disciples themselves. For in His last 
conversation with them — a conversation which took place 
after His crucifixion and resurrection, and on the very 
occasion when He made His ascension to His Father's 
throne— it is stated that ' ' they asked of Him, saying, Lord, 
wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel ¥" 
Acts 1:6. 

The Master had taken particular pains to make it plain 
to all that His first advent was to be a time of hardship 
and suffering, of humility in exacting, devoted service, 
finally culminating in His death on the cross. He had 
pointed to His death and resurrection, and expounded the 
prophecies that foretell the subsequent long night of dark- 
ness through which the church would have to pass; and 



30 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 






"But shutting the eves 
while drifting toward the 
vortex, only induces a de- 
lusive dream of security." 



finally He had dwelt upon the great 
event of His second coming, to put an 
end to sorrow, suffering, and sin. 
But the disciples had not understood nor 
realized the significance of the words of their 
Lord. Their minds were still engrossed with 
the idea of a temporal 'kingdom to be established 
then and there, in which the Lord would be King 
and they would act a prominent part. It seemed 
impossible to draw their minds away from this cher- 
ished error to the exalted sphere of the divine plan. God's 
ways and plans are always best ; but how hard it is for fallen 
humanity to surrender the false and accept the true! So 
the Father permitted the disciples with their natural eyes 
to behold their Saviour as He made His ascension to the 
heavenly throne. Thus He forever cut off all possible 
hope of a temporal reign of the Messiah over the Jewish 
nation in Palestine. 

Then while their minds were the most impressible, while 
they were yet with amazement watching their ascending 
Lord, the angels were bidden to remind them that "this 
same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall 



HE WILL COME AGAIN 



31 



so come in like manner as 
ye have seen Him go into 
heaven." Acts 1:11. What 
a lesson of tender solicitude 
for the needs of His chil- 
dren is here given! And . 
h(^v impressive is the 
thought that God will • 
exhaust every means to \1 
elevate our minds from 1 
the bewitching entangle- 
ments of error to a 
knowledge and full en- 
joyment of His exalted 
truth! 

From this scene of 
their Lord's ascension 
the privileged disciples 
retired to engage in 
careful meditation and 
earnest prayer. They 
tarried in their private 
lodgings at Jerusalem 
until the words of truth 
so carefully planted in 
their minds by the Mas- 
ter had prepared their 
hearts for the baptism 
of the Holy Spirit. Then 
came the Pentecostal out- 
pouring, and error was 
driven out, and truth, en- 





"There are heralds that are unmistakably 
trumpeting the dawn of the morning." 



32 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

throned within, was permitted to occupy its rightful place. 
Then they could proclaim with power a crucified and risen 
Saviour; they could present with confidence the sinner's 
never-failing hope, telling to all that the chains of sin and 
death were forever broken. Yes ; and they knew the prom- 
ise, too, that "this same Jesus" will "come again." 

This glorious hope of the second coming of Christ is 
a theme that has called out the most sublime utterances 
of the inspired writers in all the ages. Of one of the 
prophets who walked with God, it is said: 

"Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of 
these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands 
of His saints." Jude 14. 

In one of the sweet songs of the psalmist are the words : 
"Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp, and 
the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornet 
make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. Let the 
sea roar, and the fulness thereof ; the world, and they that 
dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands : let the hills 
be joyful together before the Lord ; for He cometh to judge 
the earth: with righteousness shall He judge the world, 
and the people with equity." Ps. 98: 5-9. 

The "gospel prophet" declares: "And it shall be said in 
that day, Lo, this is our God ; we have waited for Him, and 
He will save us : this is the Lord ; we have waited for Him, 
We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." Isa. 25: 9. 

In one of His discourses while on earth our Master 
Himself said: "The hour is coming, in the which all that 
are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come 
forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of 
life ; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of 
damnation." John 5:28, 29. 




THE CONSOLER. 



34 HERALDS OP THE MORNING 

The great apostle to the Gentiles thrills our hearts with 
this promise: "For the Lord Himself shall descend from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and 
with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise 
first : then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up 
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air : 
and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort 
one another with these words." 1 Thess. 4: 16-18. 

And thus proclaims the beloved disciple from rock-bound 
Patmos: "Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye 
shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all 
kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. ' ' Rev. 1 : 7. 

"And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled 
together ; and every mountain and island were moved out 
of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great 
men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the 
mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid 
themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 
and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us 
from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from 
the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath 
is come; and who shall be able to stand?" Rev. 6: 14-17. 

"And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the 
cloud One sat like unto the Son of man, having on His 
head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And 
another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud 
voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, 
and reap: for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the 
harvest of the earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud 
thrust in His sickle on the earth ; and the earth was reaped. ' ' 
Rev. 14:14-16. 

"And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with 



HE WILL COME AGAIN 35 

Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." 
"He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come 
quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Eev. 
22 : 12, 20. 

Could promise and positive statement be made in more 
forcible or explicit language than is used in the foregoing 
scriptures ? Study each one of these texts closely and ob- 
serve just what they say. When a scripture is so very plain 
as are these promises of the second coming of the Lord, 
comment is unnecessary. Have it to say that you see the 
cheering truth of the Saviour's glorious advent in the 
promises of His own word, rather than in the comments 
that some one may have made upon that word. Not only 
is Jesus coming again, but He is coming as the Saviour 
of all who have not persistently rejected the sinner's Friend. 
For "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; 
and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the 
second time without sin unto salvation. ' ' Heb. 9 : 28. 

The One who has inspired all the foregoing promises is 
no less a personage than He who created the universe. He 
possesses in Himself all the power that holds in place the 
vast world on which we live, guiding it in harmony with 
the countless number of vaster worlds which He is also 
sustaining and directing in space. In considering a state- 
ment or promise it is also proper to consider the power and 
ability of the one who makes it. Surely the One who has 
made this wealth of promises that Jesus the Lord will come 
again, has ample power to sustain Him in making good 
His word. 

Therefore, even though the world be filled with distress 
and wo, so that brave-hearted men tremble before the 
threatening evil, yet are there heralds of the coming morn- 



36 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



ing. The Master has promised to return, and all who 
know Him are longing for the time to come. 

Hence we may expect to find as we study the prophecies 
that accompany these promises of His coming, that all the 
disasters and dangers that we see threatening the world to- 
day are nothing more than the shoals and rocks that lie 
along the farther shore of time. They are not to be dreaded 
since we have taken the Master Pilot on board. They are 
only the visible and evident tokens that we have sighted the 
land of our eternal Eden home. What a joy is this knowl- 
edge! What an anchor of rest to the soul! 



^ISili 







CHAPTER THREE 




AID the angel, "This same Jesus . . . shall so 
come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into 
heaven." Acts 1:11. ' 
It is the "same Jesus" who was here in person, that is 
coming again in person. All that He was when He was here 
He will be when He comes again, only He will come in the 
manifestation of His glory, rather than in the manifestation 
of His meekness and lowliness. 

It is the privilege of every one to look forward to His 
coming with perfect joy, for does not the word of God pro- 
claim to all the world that Christ is the sinner's Friend? 
Every act of His self-sacrificing life was a living expression 
of the great truth that He loves us. As we read the gospel 
story, we are touched by the deep compassion of the Saviour, 
and the tenderness with which He devoted Himself to fallen 
man. He came so close to us, and became so fully identified 
with us, that He is "touched with the feeling of our infir- 
mities." Heb. 4: 15. And when we are overwhelmed with 
sin and grief and pain, and know that there is no human 
friend that can understand us and give us sympathy and 
help, and even though words may fail us in expressing our 
distressed and perplexing condition, yet we may come with 
confidence to our Redeemer, and tell Him that we know He 
understands us fully. We can say to Him that He "feels" 
our "infirmities," and that He knows from a personal expe- 

38 



THIS SAME JESUS 



39 



rience how to apply the healing balm to our aching hearts. 
O, what a sympathizing Saviour ! 

See Him at Bethesda, seeking for the lonely sufferer who 
said, "I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put 
me into the pool : but while I am coming, another steppeth 
down before me." The active, throbbing power of life 
was in the words that the great Physician spoke to this 
afflicted and friendless man; and in the command of the 
Master, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk" (John 5:7, 8), 
he found complete healing 
for every ailment. Why 
did the Lord pass by all 
others, and seek out this 
friendless and helpless one ? 
O, it is because He has so 
closely united Himself with 
humanity that He feels our j 
weakness and distress! 
How gracious! how con- 
siderate ! how tender ! 

On another occasion we 
find Him at the tomb of 
Lazarus. About Him are 
the sorrowing sisters and 
friends of the dead. He 
feels the grief that rends 
their sad hearts, and not 
only their affliction, but 
pressing upon His soul of 
love is all the sadness to be 
wrought by sin and death 

aCLOWn tile ageS. IJie reC- "At Bethesda, seeking for the lonely sufferer." 




40 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



ord says, " Jesus wept." John 11:35. What a universe 
of meaning to us now, as well as to them, is summed up 
in these two short words ! In His tender, all-comprehend- 
ing love the heart of the Creator is touched, and His sym- 
pathetic grief commingles with that of His creatures. Is 
it any winder that the Jew T s standing by said, "Behold 

how He loved him"? And yet 
it was not love for Lazarus 
or his sisters merely 
which moved the heart 
of Jesus, but love for 
the mourning, suffering, 
and afflicted ones of all 
the ages. And well may 
we all join the apostle 
in saying that "God 
commendeth His love 
toward us, in that, 
i wdiile we were yet sin- 
ners, Christ died for 
us." Bom. 5: 8. 

Thus we may follow 
the Master all through 
His devoted life, and 
always do we find Him 
mingling with the peo- 
ple, sharing their joys 
and their sorrows, re- 
lieving their distress, 
and healing their sick. 
He gave Himself with- 
"BehoM how He loved out any reserve to hu- 

him!" John 11:36. 




THIS SAME JESUS 41 

manity — the great object of His love. This love was not 
quenched even when cruel hands and sin-hardened hearts 
were mercilessly torturing Him on the cross. Even there 
He poured out the prayer, "Father, forgive them; for they 
know not what they do." 

Then with what a thrill of joy must the words come to 
us, "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into 
heaven, shall so come in like manner as ve have seen Him 
go into heaven." Acts 1:11. He is the same Jesus; the 
same compassionate and tender Saviour; the same One 
who "hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows;" 
He who was "wounded for our transgressions," and 
"bruised for our iniquities," and with whose "stripes we 
are healed." How this good news should cause our hearts 
to overflow with joy! 

He is to "come in like manner as ye have seen Him go." 
Yes, "in like manner/' When they saw Him go, He was 
the personal, literal Jesus that they had associated with 
and loved and adored both as their dearest Companion and 
Saviour. And "in like manner" He returns; He comes as 
the same literal, personal Friend for all who will receive 
Him. 

The apostle Paul says that "the Lord Himself shall de- 
scend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Arch- 
angel and with the trump of God : and the dead in Christ 
shall rise first. " 1 Thess. 4 : 16. Yes, it is the Lord Himself 
and not another who is coming again. Then, standing not 
at the tomb of Lazarus only, but in the presence of all the 
chambers of death in which His people are awaiting His 
summons, the voice of the great Victor is heard, and "the 
dead in Christ" arise. Such is a part of the Lord's own 



42 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

description of His coming, and we know that He is the same 
desirable Friend. 

There are many persons who look back with longing de- 
sire to the time when Jesus was on earth. They think they 
would have been overjoyed at the privilege of being with 
Him, listening to Him speaking as never man had spoken, 
l and feeling the rejuvenating touch of His healing power. 
But these same persons are terrified at the thought that the 
second coining of the Lord may take place in their day. Per- 
haps they recognize the fact that His second coming ushers 
in the great judgment day, and that the execution of the de- 
cisions of that majestic tribunal will destroy every sinner 
out of all the fair universe of God. It is well to seek to 
grasp the magnitude of the whole truth. It is well to know 
that the doom of every unrepentant sinner will have been 
eternally fixed at the second coming of Christ ; but we should 
not make our calculations on being among the sinner-class in 
that great day. Just now we should come to Jesus, the " sin- 
ner's Friend," and have Him cleanse us wholly from every 
taint of sin, so that we may enter into the indescribable joy 
of His second coming. 

The joy of His coming may take possession of us now 
and be an ever-present source of delight. Even amid the 
most distressing conditions through which the people of this 
world must pass during the perilous days of earth's closing 
history, the joy of His coming will thrill us with such un- 
told pleasures that every dark cloud of danger will raise our 
courage and intensify our hope. 

The gentleness, the kindness, the sympathy, and all the 
rest of the tender virtues that were so divinely blended in 
the life of Christ our Lord were thus manifested in order 
that men might behold the goodness of God and so be led 



THIS SAME JESUS 43 

to love, espouse, and enjoy the right. There is no true joy 
except in the way of righteousness; and it is only when 
we are clinging to our sins and rejecting the repentance, 
cleansing, and righteousness that our heavenly Father prof- 
fers, that we are terrified at the thought of meeting face to 
face the glorified and returning world's Redeemer. 

"And, behold, they brought to Him a man sick of the 
palsy, lying on a bed : and Jesus seeing their faith said unto 
the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be for- 
given thee. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within 
themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing 
their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts ? 
For whether is easier, to sa} r , Thy sins be forgiven thee; 
or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that 
the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins (then 
saith He to the sick of the palsy), Arise, take up thy bed, 
and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to 
his house. But when the multitudes saw it, they marveled, 
and glorified God, which had given such power unto men." 
Matt. 9 : 2-8. 

"This same Jesus" is seeking to draw you to Himself to- 
day so that He may implant in your heart the living faith 
that was in the "man sick of the palsy," and also in the 
hearts of them who brought him to Jesus; and just as soon 
as we open the heart for that faith to enter, we shall hear 
from the word of the Lord, "Son, be of good cheer; thy 
sins be forgiven thee." When this faith comes into the 
soul, we "know that the Son of man hath power on earth 
to forgive sins." Not only do we know the experience of 
this forgiving power, but we will join in ascribing glory to 
God who has "given such power unto men." 

Then when the cleansing power of the life-blood of Jesus 



44 HERALDS OF THE MOBNING 

has washed away every defilement and stain of sin; when 
the power of God, the Creator of our new life, floods our 
souls with a realizing sense of the fact that we are actualty 
in possession of the heavenly gift of righteousness; when 
we rise into the strength and the raptures of this new life 
of freedom from guilt — then truty do we joy and rejoice in 
the fact that "this same Jesus" is coming again. 

The knowledge that Jesus is coming again, and that He 
is coming soon, is an anchor that holds. With this great 
hope filling the soul, there are no dark forebodings because 
of the evil that is rising like a tidal wave over all the 
earth. The Son of God, with His innumerable host of 
shining angels, will soon appear, and every waiting, hoping, 
trusting one will be immortalized, to join in swelling the 
triumphant shout of deliverance. 

O cheering hope! O happy day! O glorious fact that 
the time is near ! Speed onward, ye lagging moments, and 
bear us quickly to the glad day when "this same Jesus" 
shall come again. 




tHALLSCO) 



CHAPTER FOUR 




E have already found that the Scriptures make it 
perfectly plain that the "same Jesus" is coming 
again. They are equally clear in telling us that 
"this Jesus, who was received uj) from you into heaven, 
shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going into 
heaven." Acts 1:11. 

The Master was fulfilling His word by ascending to His 
Father's throne; and right while this was taking place the 
angels appear to the disciples to tell them that He "shall 
so come," and in "like manner." 

The manner in which He went awav is stated in Ian- 
guage that is easily understood. "And when He had said 
these things, as they were looking, He was taken up; and 
a cloud received Him out of their sight. ' ' Acts 1:9. It 
was while "they were looking" that the Master departed. 
He had their attention fixed upon Him, for the next verse 
adds, "And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven 
as He went, behold two men stood by them in white apparel ; 
who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking 
into heaven? this Jesus, who was received up from you 
into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him 
going into heaven." Acts 1: 10, 11. 

The disciples were not only "looking," but they were 

45 



46 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 




"And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet." 



looking "steadfastly" at the Lord Jesus as He went away. 
They must soon be called upon to describe His departing, 
and also to tell of His returning. They must be able to 
explain what they mean by saying He " shall so come in 
like manner;" and hence the Master arranged to have them 
"steadfastly," fixedly, beholding Him as He was going 
away. 

They tell us that "He was taken up; and a cloud re- 
ceived Him out of their sight. ' ' Acts 1 : 9. Issues of eternal 
moment center in the second coming of Christ, and hence 
that event must not be left to conjecture or speculation. 
The most definite, positive, clear knowledge must be given 
in regard to it ; for the great adversary will seek to bewilder 



SHALL SO COME IN LIKE MANNER 



47 



the minds of men concerning the manner in which the Lord 
will return. Hence everything is made perfectly clear and 
obvious. 

"A cloud received Him out of their sight" as He went 
away. Not only does this text in Acts declare that He will 
"so come in like manner," but other scriptures besides tell 
us that the clouds will attend Him again when He comes. 
"Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see 
Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds 
of the earth shall wail because of Him." Rev. 1 : 7. "And 
then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: 
and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they 
shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven 
with power and great glory." Matt. 24:30. "And then shall 
they see the Son of man coming 
in the clouds with great power 
and glory." Mark 13:26. '■ m 

These scriptures tell a '«•£&■' 

plain truth in such very 
definite language that I 
there is no need of a mis- j / 
take. The Lord wants : 
us to know just what to i 
look for in His second 
coming, and we need not : 
be imposed upon by the 
sophistries of any decep- 
tion if we are only care- 
ful to give heed to what 
is revealed in the inspired 
Book. 



The word of God 




"This same Jesus 
like manner." 



shall so come in 



48 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

goes further and tells us that when the Eedeemer comes 
the second time, the brightest glory will attend Him; "for 
the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with 
His angels ; and then He shall reward every man according 
to his works." Matt. 16:27. And again: "When the 
Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels 
with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory." 
Matt. 25: 31. Mark the description of His coming: "The 
Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father;" and, 
"the Son of man shall come in His glory." Thus in this 
event, as in everything else, the glory of both the Father 
and the Son is blended into one effulgent harmony. 

And observe that He is not coming alone. For with 
Him, in the shining brightness which God has given to each 
one of them, are "all the holy angels." Speaking of the 
number of the angels, it is said : "I beheld, and I heard the 
voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts 
and the elders : and the number of them was ten thousand 
times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands." Rev. 
5:11. "Ten thousand times ten thousand" is a hundred 
million. But this is only a part of the vast throng ; for the 
prophet immediately adds, "And thousands of thousands." 

Note the inspired description of the one angel who ap- 
peared at the tomb of Christ on the morning of His resur- 
rection. "Now late on the Sabbath day, as it began to dawn 
toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and 
the other Mary to see the sepulcher. And behold, there 
was a great earthquake ; for an angel of the Lord descended 
from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat 
upon it. His appearance was as lightning, and his raiment 
white as snow: and for fear of him the watchers did quake, 
and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said 



SHALL SO COME IN LIKE MANNER 49 

unto the women, Fear not ye; for I know that ye seek 
Jesus, who hath been crucified. He is not here ; for He is 
risen, even as He said. ' ' Matt. 28 : 1-6. 

Since one angel alone shines with such brightness, what 
will be the glorious brilliancy when the glory of the innu- 
merable host of God is united with that of the Father and 
the Son in the second advent? How will the brightness 
of the majesty of the King of eternity so outshine the lumi- 
nary of day that it will be paled into the dim blush of 
twilight before the triumphal cohorts of Him who is re- 
turning to earth! 

What a glorious event the second coming of the Lord 
will be! What majestic power and floods of dazzling light 
will shine forth from this mighty host when the Lamb of 
God returns in triumph for the trophies of His grace and 
love ! " As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shine th 
even unto the west ; so shall also the coming of the Son of 
man be." Matt. 24:27. 

He who is the Creator of every shining luminary in all 
the infinite expanse of space, He who holds in His person 
the power that produces every ray of light that floods the 
systems of the universe, when He comes in person to rescue 
the redeemed from this revolted planet, will shine with a 
glory befitting that event as well as the majesty of His 
person. The mind should be aroused to its highest capa- 
bilities when contemplating the splendor of that soul- 
rejoicing day of the Lord's second coming. And even when 
thus aroused, our limited, finite powers will enable us to 
picture but dimly the brilliancy of the glory of the King 
of kings and Lord of lords in that supreme day. 

But the great deceiver does not want us to have a proper 
sense of what the second coming of Christ means to this 



50 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

sinful world, and therefore he seeks to becloud the minds 
of men in regard to both the nearness of the Master's com- 
ing and what the event really is. The Saviour tells us, 
"Many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and 
shall deceive many." Matt. 24: 5. But no pretender can 
ever present to the world a literal fulfilment of all the in- 
spired specifications that are to mark the coming of the 
glorified Son of God. Still it is said of these " false christs 
and false prophets" that they "shall show great signs and 
wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall 
deceive the very elect." Matt. 24:24. 

The word of God not only gives a faithful description 
of the manner and appearance of the second coming of 
the Lord, but it also unmasks the deceptions by which the 
enemy would ensnare and ruin us. Hence we should be 
faithful students of the Book of books. The ordinary read- 
ing of the Bible is not sufficient to barricade the heart 
against the deceptions prepared by the evil one for the last 
days. We must literally feed on the divine word. We 
must commune with God through that word and by 
prayer. In this way we may become so fully assimilated 
into His life and character, grow into such an intimate 
friendship with Him, and be made so sensible of the power 
of His coming, that we shall not be deceived. We shall 
know the voic,e of the true Shepherd, and no impostor, be 
he ever so cunning, can possibly lead us astray; for when 
the true Shepherd "putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth 
before them, and the sheep follow Him : for they know His 
voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee 
from him: for they know not the voice of strangers." 
John 10 : 4, 5. 

We know only "this same Jesus;" only Him with the 



SHALL SO COME IN LIKE MANNER 51 

perfect character; only Him whose life was so unselfishly 
sacrificed for lost mankind; only the Son of God "who 
loved me, and gave Himself for me," — as every believer 
can say, — can ever fill the place that He has won in 
the Christian's heart. The cunning enemy may present 
deceptions, and among his "great signs and wonders" may 
even show a brilliant spectacle that will cause some to think 
that Christ has already come; but only those will be de- 
ceived thereby who have rejected or failed to heed the warn- 
ings of the word of God. 

Then through faith in His word receive the Redeemer 
as your personal Saviour. He says, "Behold, I stand at 
the door, and knock : if any man hear My voice, and open 
the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, 
and he with Me." Rev. 3: 20. And if you court the pres- 
ence of His Holy Spirit, and thus allow Sim to draw you 
into this intimate association, you will learn to know Him 
as a personal Friend. You will become actually acquainted 
with the Son of God. And the individual who really knows 
the Friend of sinners, earnestly longs for the day of His 
coming. He carefully observes every herald of the ap- 
proaching morn ; and however this world may be filled with 
terrors, and however dark it may be to others, to him it 
is all lighted up by the sure promises that the eternal day 
is at hand. His heart is throbbing for the time, and his 
eyes are eager to behold "this same Jesus," the one object 
of his joy and love. 




MAY NOT KNOW TMEtlOUR 






CHAPTER FIVE 

LTHOUGH the word of God abounds in promises 
of the second coming of Christ, yet we are told, "Of 
that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the 
angels of heaven, but My Father only." Matt. 24: 36. 

This scripture is so very plain that the truly loyal 
Christian will readily see that it is no part of his work 
to figure out a definite date on which the Lord is to come. 
The "day and hour" of that great event the Father has not 
seen fit to reveal. And we may rest assured that whatever 
is not made known is withheld because of a wise and good 
purpose. Then we should be content to leave all such mat- 
ters in the hands of God, without troubling our minds over 
them in the least. 

But though the word of God is very explicit in telling 
us that the "day and hour" of the Saviour's coming have 
not been made known, we shall find that it clearly shows that 
we may know when the event is near. The disciples asked 
Jesus, "What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the 
end of the world?" Matt. 24:3. The Saviour proceeded 
to give a definite answer to this direct question: "And 
then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: 
and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they 
shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven 
with power and great glory. And He shall send forth His 
angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall 

52 



WE MAY NOT KNOW THE HOUR 



53 



~*m 



gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end 
of heaven to the other. Now from the fig-tree learn her 
parable : when her branch is now become tender, and put- 
teth forth its leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh; 
even so ye also, when ye see all these things, know ye 
that He is nigh, even at the doors." Matt. 24: 30-33. 
Luke, in the twenty-first chapter of his gospel, re- 
cords this same conversation between 

the disciples 

and Christ 

concerning 

His second 

coming. 

Speaking of 

the signs that 

are to precede 

His advent, 

the Lord says, 

"When these 

things begin to come to pass, then look up, and 

lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." 

Verse 28. 

Thus the Lord foretells certain signs that are to betoken 
His coming. He first points us to the signs, and then He 
declares that when these begin to come to pass, we may 
know for a certainty that our redemption is near, and that 
He is "even at the doors." The swelling of the buds in 
the spring-time is a never-failing evidence that summer is 
nigh; and upon the Master's own word, the tokens of His 
coming are to be relied upon with the same certainty. 

The language of the apostle Paul is equally clear upon 
this subject: "But of the times and the seasons, brethren, 




54 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves 
know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a 
thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and 
safety ; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as trav- 
ail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should 
overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, 
and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor 
of darkness." 1 Thess. 5:1-5. 

From this scripture we readily see that those who stand 
in the light will know "the times and the seasons" of "the 
day of the Lord." Speaking to his "brethren," the apostle 
says, "Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord 
so cometh as a thief in the night." Verse 2. But that 
great day does not thus come upon all ; for he says further, 
"Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should 




"As a thief in 
the night." 



WE MAY NOT KNOW THE HOUR 55 

overtake you as a thief." Verse 4. The " brethren' 9 stand 
in the light, and so know "the times and the seasons" of 
"the day of the Lord." 

Then there will be a class who will say, "Peace and 
safety," and upon whom "sudden destruction cometh;" 
and another class who "are not in darkness," and hence 
that day does not "overtake them as a thief." This de- 
struction comes upon the one class because they have 
chosen to hide away from the light, while the others are 
delivered because they have accepted "the true Light, which 
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. ' ' John 1 : 9. 
For "light is come into the world, and men loved darkness 
rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every 
one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the 
light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth 
truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made mani- 
fest, that they are wrought in God." John 3: 19-21. 

Those here spoken of who "loved darkness rather than 
light," will very naturally say, "Peace and safety," even 
though in the immediate presence of ' ' sudden destruction ; ' ' 
and while they remain in that blinding darkness, they can 
not see the evidence showing that "He is near, even at the 
doors." But the psalmist says, "Thy word is a lamp unto 
my feet, and a light unto my path." Ps. 119:105. The 
reverent student who will open the heart and the mind 
to the reception of that word, will thereby stand among 
those who discern the signs of the times. 

Our heavenly Father has seen fit to reserve to Himself 
the knowledge of the exact "day and hour" when the Sa- 
viour will come ; but with clearness does He state that we 
may know "the times and the seasons." We may know 
when He is near. 




CHAPTER SIX 




HE scripture quoted at the beginning of the pre- 
ceding chapter is very clear in saying that we may 
not know the hour when the Lord will come. It is 
equally as plain in commanding us to know when He is 
near. The fact should be repeated and emphasized that the 
Lord Himself tells us to know of the time of this great 
event. We are altogether too prone to treat the state- 
ments of the Bible as mere matters of speculation. 

Greek and Roman literature have been very closely 
studied all through the Christian era ; and the habit of those 
ancient philosophers in speculating upon matters of re- 
ligion has been altogether too strongly imbibed by the 
teachers and adherents in general of the Christian faith. 
We may excuse the men who lived in those times of 
spiritual darkness for making their religion a subject 
for fanciful dreaming and speculative discourse. But the 
Christian can not be excused in following their example. 
We have for the basis of our Christian faith the word of 
God. He who is the Source and Creator of all true wis- 

56 



KNOW THAT HE IS NEAR 57 

dom and knowledge, has given us an infallible guide, and 
commanded us to knoiv and understand. 

There are many among the professors of the Christian 
religion who seem to think that it is almost presumption 
for them to claim to know anything about their faith; hence 
it is expedient to devote this short chapter to the work of 
emphasizing the thought that we should "knoiv" the facts 
of our faith with the same definiteness that we know the 
facts and principles of our mathematics. We speak of 
mathematics as one of the exact sciences. We have tested 
the accuracy of figures until we understand the definite 
knowledge of this great field of fact ; but the same God who 
is the Author of the valuable and accurate and certain 
science of mathematics, is also the Author of the Bible. 
He is not only the Author of its soul-uplifting spirituality 
and infinitely broad and high morality, but He is also the 
Author of its complete, clear, definite, and altogether ac- 
curate prophecy. Throned in omnipotence and omnis- 
cience, His eyes sweep the eternity of the future as well 
as of the past ; and with the accuracy that belongs only to 
unerring perfection, He gives us the evidences by which 
we may "know" what is the meaning of the unfolding of 
the events and phenomena that are causing so much con- 
cern in the world to-day. 

We know that the problems and evils among the men 
of this time, as well as the unsteady course of the elements 
so violently voiced in volcano, earthquake, tidal wave, and 
hurricane, are filling men with a dread for the develop- 
ments of the immediate future. We know this not only 
because we meet men everywhere who are discussing it, 
but we have also the infallible word, which says: "And 
there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the 



58 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with per- 
plexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts fail- 
ing them for fear, and for looking after those things which 
are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall 
be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man 
coming in a cloud with power and great glory." Luke 
21:25-27. 

" Men's hearts" are " failing them for fear" because 
they see the things that are coming on the earth. They 
see the " distress of nations, with perplexity;" they hear 
the "sea and the waves roaring," and they are uncertain 
as to what it means. They are unnerved because of the 
thought of the possibly disastrous outcome of it all. But 
to every one who can be reached with God's word, to 
every one who will allow the seeds of faith to be implanted 
in his mind and heart, there is the cheering message, "When 
these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift 
up your heads ; for your redemption draweth nigh. ' ' Luke 
21 : 28. The individual who knows what should be known 
by every one in this day is not downcast because of the 
issues of this time and the possibilities of a general cata- 
clysm next week or next month. No, indeed! The indi- 
vidual who "knoivs" is the one who is "looking up," and 
he is filled with rejoicing because he "~knows" that his re- 
demption is right at hand. 

Everything in all God's great universe shows the pre- 
cision of His accuracy. Any science that can justly claim 
Him as its Author is not a field for vain and mystic specu- 
lation. We enter its domain to study for definite truth 
that can be fully demonstrated and made practically bene- 
ficial. Then why should we cross the threshold of God's 
great temple of spiritual truth, especially in the depart- 



KNOW THAT HE IS NEAK 59 

ment of prophecy, with any other intention than actually 
to know and understand? 

We not only have the prophecy of God's word plainly 
telling us the meaning of the things that are coming on the 
world, so that we may be able to look up and lift up our 
heads because of our redemption drawing nigh, but we 
have also the assurance of the fact that His Spirit will be 
our ever-present teacher, so that there may be no possibility 
of mistake. Hear the words of the Master upon this point : 
"Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will 
guide you into all truth : for He shall not speak of Himself ; 
but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and 
He will show you things to come." John 16 : 13. How def- 
inite and accurate is the promise in these words : ' ' He will 
guide you into all truth," and He can guide us into nothing 
else but truth; for does not the text say He is "the Spirit 
of truth"? But let it ever be remembered that the light 
with which He guides us is the word of God. "And [take] 
the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Eph. 
6 : 17. We must take our stand upon the plain words of 
the Bible, and with the definite "Thus saith the Lord" for 
our eyepiece, we can then call upon the Spirit of God and 
know that "He will" indeed "guide you into all truth." 

The verses immediately following the foregoing beau- 
tiful and assuring promise from the book of John, read: 
"He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and 
shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath 
are Mine : therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and 
shall show it unto you." John 16: 14, 15. The same divine 
Spirit of truth that the Master promises shall "guide you 
into all truth" will also take of the things of God and show 
them unto us. This is the statement of God's own word 



60 HEBALDS OF THE MORNING 

in the presentation of a great spiritual truth. And this 
spiritual truth is as perfectly scientific in its operations 
as is electricity in its field of action. The same God who 
created the laws that make the flow of the electric current 
possible, and who gave to man the enlightenment that en- 
abled him to discover these laws, is also the One who has 
given to mankind His Spirit to guide them into a knowledge 
of all the spiritual truth that is spoken in His word. We 
can not see the electric current, but we may study to know 
the law that it operates upon, and the work it will do when 
allowed properly to operate. And so, while we can not see 
the Spirit of God, yet the word of God is the means pf 
communication through which this Spirit comes to us, 
serving also as the living agent through which the Spirit 
performs its definite work. 

With these promises of being guided into all truth, and 
with the command of the Master to "know" when He is 
near, thus placed before us in His word, w r e should not 
have any vague understanding of the future. For when 
He commands us to know, He also makes it possible for us 
to know. This definite knowledge is in His word. Let us 
seek till we find it, and let us know that we know it; it 
is a thing of too much value to be neglected or lightly 
esteemed. 



'ATCH y& IT 1EF0R 




CHAPTER SEVEN 

PTER stating to His disciples that "of that day and 
that hour knoweth no man, ' ' the Lord said : ' i Watch 
ye therefore : for ye know not when the Master of the 
house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, 
or in the morning : lest coming suddenly He find you sleep- 
ing. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." 
Mark 13 : 35-37. 

Satan is continually waging an active warfare against 
every soul. He is determined that no one shall accept 
Christ if he can possibly prevent it. Says the Scripture, 
"Wo to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the 
devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because 
he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Rev. 12: 12. 
As the Lord's coming draws nearer and nearer, Satan's 
time for working becomes shorter and shorter. And when 
"he knoweth that he hath but a short time," his "great 

61 



62 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

wrath" is manifested by increased and cunning deceptions, 
in order that he may bind as many as possible for the 
" sudden destruction" that awaits the wicked world. By 
his delusive arts Satan seeks so fully to engross the mind 
in the things of this life that the evidence of our Lord's 
coming will not be seen, even though that evidence stands 
out before the world as an unobscured and blazing light. 
But we are put on our guard against the deceptions of the 
great adversary by the ringing words, "Watch, . . . 
lest coming suddenly He find you sleeping." 

The great necessity of watching when the closing days 
of time are reached, is repeated and emphasized in the word 
of God. Only by constantly reading and giving heed to 
these warnings can we preserve a realizing sense of their 
importance. By the apostle Paul we are told that "then 
shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume 
with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the 
brightness of His coming : even Him, whose coming is after 
["according to," A. R. V.] the working of Satan with all 
power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceiv- 
ableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because 
they received not the love of the truth, that they might be 
saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong de- 
lusion, that they should believe a lie : that they all might be 
damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in 
unrighteousness." 2 Thess. 2:8-12. 

Observe with care the warnings in the foregoing scrip- 
ture. "The brightness of His coming," it is stated, "shall 
destroy" "that Wicked." And His "coming is after [or 
"according to"] the working of Satan with all power and 
signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of 
unrighteousness in them that perish." The Lord's coming, 



WATCH YE THEREFORE 63 

then, we should be particular to observe, is "after" (" ac- 
cording to") this deceptive working of Satan with such 
"power" and " deceivableness of unrighteousness." In 
other words, when Satan's workings of evil become so bad 
that sure destruction to every living thing must soon result, 
then the Master will appear to end it. Thus is the Lord's 
coming "according to" the working of Satan. It is in and 
through "them that perish" that Satan works; and it is all 
in consequence of the fact that "they received not the love 
of the truth, that they might ~be saved." 

So, then, Satan works with power, but he masks himself 
with "deceivableness of unrighteousness;" and this work- 
ing of the enemy becomes fiercer and stronger as we near 
the end. While Satan is working so powerfully, the Father 
in heaven is also sending out His great gospel truth to 
save people from these deceptions and the consequent de- 
struction ; but some, as stated in this scripture, receive not 
"the love of the truth." The truth is presented to them; 
they hear it, and are convicted by.it; but they do not 
"love" this Heaven-sent message. They prefer to cling to 
their sinful lusts, and so they fix their own doom; and in 
doing this they become a channel through which Satan 
works his masterly deceptions. 

In this connection note the facts set forth in another 
scripture: "This know also, that in the last days perilous 
times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own 
selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient 
to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, 
truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers 
of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers 
of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of 
godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn 



64 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, 
and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away 
with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to 
the knowledge of the truth. 

"Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do 
these also resist the truth : men of corrupt minds, reprobate 
concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: 
for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also 

was." 2 Tim. 3:1-9. 

We are not left in dark- 
ness as to the time when the 
foregoing scripture applies. 
It is plainly stated that 
it is "in the last days," 
and in verses 2 to 5 
are recorded the sins 
that are the occa- 
. sion of these last- 
day perils. In 
verse 8 we are told 
that "as Jannes and 
Jambres withstood 
Moses, so do these 
also resist the truth : men of corrupt minds, reprobate con- 
cerning the faith." 

The ancient records of the Jews, as well as the history 
and traditions of many of the Eastern countries, preserve 
the names of Jannes and Jambres. They were two of the 
leading magicians, who, prompted by the spirit of Satan, 
were able to counterfeit for a time the miracles that by 
the power of God Moses wrought before Pharaoh. Then 
let it again be observed that the text says : "Now as Jannes 




"The 
time was 



power of the magicians in Moses' 
great." 



WATCH YE THEREFORE 65 

and Jambres withstood Moses, so [i. e., in like manner] 
do these also resist the truth." How clear the prophecy 
that just as Moses was withstood by the magicians in his 
day, so will the "truth" be resisted by "men of corrupt 
minds," amid the "perilous times" of the "last days"! In 
view of this, how full of importance is the Saviour's admo- 
nition to watch! 

The deceptive working and power of the magicians in 
Moses' time was so great, and they were able to produce 
such marvelous counterfeit miracles, that the carnal-minded 
Pharaoh persuaded himself that their work was equal to 
that which was wrought through the hand of Moses by the 
Spirit of the living God. And in answering the question, 
"What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end 
of the world?" Jesus makes prominent mention of the 
fact that "there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, 
and shall show great signs and wonders ; insomuch that, if 
it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." Matt. 
24:3, 24. 

Thus the never-failing word of God places before us 
warning after warning against the deceptive, wonder- 
working power of the "false Christs and false prophets" 
that Satan will use in the last days to lure men into eternal 
ruin. How caref ully, then, should we cherish the warning : 
"Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall 
come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive 
many." Matt. 24: 4, 5. We can not be too careful or too 
guarded; for that fallen angel, who has given all his great 
powers for the whole six thousand years of this earth's 
history to the one work of deceiving mankind and leading 
them away from God, is making his last and most per- 
sistent effort to delude and destroy. 



66 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

God's word faithfully unmasks all these delusions, so 
that we may recognize them as just what they are as fast 
as they appear; and by giving heed to the utterances of 
the divine Book, we may rest secure in the promises of 
our heavenly Father, and so escape every one of the snares 
of the enemy. To be ready to meet the Master at His 
coming should be our one great aim ; for He loves us with 
an everlasting love, and His coming is for the purpose 
of destroying the reign of sin, with all the consequent 
curse, and taking all who shall have received Him to the 
perfect and eternal home. 

Since He has so fully manifested His love toward us, 
how can we slight His warnings against the great delu- 
sions of our time, and, turning away from the study of 
His word and an abiding faith in what it says, be for- 
ever lost? The word of God, the blessed Bible, should 
be our trusted teacher and guide. "The law of his God 
is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide." Ps. 37: 31. 
"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not 
sin against Thee." "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, 
and a light unto my path." Ps. 119:11, 105. "Thou 
wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on 
Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord 
forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." 
Isa. 26 : 3, 4. 

God's word is filled with these "exceeding great and 
precious promises." Seek them out and feed upon them; 
for by so doing every peril may be seen and avoided. 
Careful study of the word of God must, in the very nature 
of things, form a basis of our giving intelligent heed to 
the Saviour's command to "watch, . . . lest coming 
suddenly He find you sleeping." 




CHAPTER EIGHT 




AVXNG in a general way called attention in the 
preceding chapter to the delusions and wonder- 
working power of Satan that will be manifested 
so marvelously in the "last days," it may be well to notice 
more particularly two or three of the deceptions against 
which we are especially warned in the word of God. 

The following scripture will help us to understand 
what one of these delusions is: "And I saw three unclean 
spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and 
out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of 
the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, work- 
ing miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth 
and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that 
great day of God Almighty." Rev. 16 : 13, 14. Then when 
"that great day" is imminent, the "spirits of devils" will 
be "working miracles." 

It is worthy of note that these "spirits of devils" go to 
the "kings of the earth," thus showing that they will seek 
to captivate the leading, influential men of the world ; and, 
to accomplish their design, they will have to present de- 
ceptive miracles, such as will arrest the attention of the 
most intelligent and best-educated classes. All such art- 

67 



68 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

fully devised deceptions are in perfect harmony with the 
character of the wily foe. "And no marvel; for Satan 
himself is transformed into an angel of light. 7 ' 2 Cor. 
11 : 14. Satan would be at once rejected if he came in 
any other garb than that of "an angel of light." He is a 
deceiver, and the real character of his iniquitous plans must 
be so skilfully hidden that his snare will not be detected 
till the victim is hopelessly, even though unconsciously, en- 
tangled in his net. 

Very forcible and clear concerning this great latter-day 
deception of Satan are the words of the apostle Paul : "Now 
the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some 
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, 
and doctrines of devils." 1 Tim. 4: 1. Here is an expres- 
sion from the Lord that is given with emphasis. "The 
Spirit speaketh expressly;" and we should pay careful 
attention to the divine message "so expressly" given. 

To "depart from the faith" is to disbelieve or reject 
the plain words of the Bible ; for "faith cometh by hear- 
ing, and hearing by the tvord of God." Rom. 10:17. It 
is the "word" of God, then, that we are to hear; and it 
is by hearing this word that faith comes. Hence he who 
departs from the faith must first either neglect or reject 
the word of God. It is not necessary openly to express 
infidelity in order to effectually reject God's divine Book. 
If by human interpretations, explanations, and mystifi- 
cations that Book is allowed to be so completely covered up 
that it is no longer the direct voice of God to the soul, the 
Bible is even more completely driven from the mind than 
if one were an out-and-out infidel. Explanations or criti- 
cisms that cast doubt upon the word of God, and that lead 
men to believe that it does not mean what it clearly says, 



GREAT DECEPTIONS 69 

inevitably cause them to depart from the faith, and the 
way is thereby opened for the next step, which is, " giving 
heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." 

But no interpretations, explanations, or mystifying 
teachings of the Bible can compare, in their evil results, 
with the neglect individually to study the sacred Book. 
With the mass of professing Christians the Bible is seldom 
opened from one year's end to the other. These people, 
while professing to believe the Bible, know scarcely any- 
thing of what it really contains. They have not delved into 
its mines of promises, instructions, warnings, and proph- 
ecies, and so may be led to give heed to these " seducing 
spirits," even while thinking to follow the guidance of the 
Lord. God has placed in His word these warnings against 
" seducing spirits" so that every person may read and 
understand. To fail to study the Bible is to turn from the 
light that discloses the pitfalls of the deceiver. 

Concerning this departing from the faith, it is left to 
the reader to answer the question for himself if either the 
pulpit or the religious press (with but few exceptions) is 
to-day teaching the pure word of God in the "demonstra- 
tion of the Spirit and of power," as was once the case. 
The word predicts a departing from the faith in the "lat- 
ter times." It is the boast of men to-day that "this age 
has outgrown many of the things taught in the Bible," 
and they call it an indication of great intellectual advance- 
ment. But, instead, it is one among the sure signs that 
we are in the time when "some shall depart from the 
faith," — one of the positive evidences that the "latter 
times" are reached. Every true believer in the word of 
God will know this now, and all others will be forced to 
acknowledge it soon. 



70 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

It should also be carefully observed that this depart- 
ing from the faith is followed by " giving heed to seducing 
spirits, and doctrines of devils. ' ' It could not be otherwise ; 
for when men fail to heed the Bible, which exposes all the 
deceptions of Satan, of course he will then drive them head- 
long into his snares. The great extent to which these won- 
der-working deceptions will be carried may best be ex- 
pressed in the words of the prophet: "And he doeth great 
wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on 
the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that 
dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which 
he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to 
them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an 
image to the beast, which had the wound by the sword, and 
did live." Eev. 13:13, 14. 

Reader, what think you? If you should see a power 
working such a miracle as making "fire come down from 
heaven," would it not be quite convincing to you? But 
be on your guard. God, in the clearest and most direct 
language, is warning you against these "spirits of devils" 
that "go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole 
world," exhibiting their miracle-working power. How 
needful for us, then, in these times of peril, to cling close 
to the mighty Rock, so that no masterpiece of the enemy's 
deceptions may overthrow us! 

Of course the miraculous power that makes this great 
display, even causing fire to "come down from heaven," 
has not yet been manifested ; but the ' ' consulter with famil- 
iar spirits, " who, as we shall presently see, is acting directly 
contrary to the word of God, is to be found everywhere, 
and is seeking to convince all that there are "great won- 
ders ' ' wrapped up in modern Spiritualism. ' ' Only honestly 



GREAT DECEPTIONS 71 

investigate, ' ' say they, "and you must be convinced." A 
representative statement upon this point may be quoted 
from a leading minister in Boston, who recounts his ex- 
perience with Spiritualism. After telling, through the 
columns of an influential magazine what he had seen the 
mediums do, he says: "Here are most tvonderful facts. 
How shall they be accounted for?" The prophet's predic- 
tion is that he 1 1 doeth great wonders. ' ' How literally is this 
fulfilled in the "wonders" presented by the modern spirit 
medium, and in the belief among highly educated men that 
the claims of Spiritualism are "tvonderful facts"! 

The "leading thinkers" at first regarded Spiritualism 
as nothing more than artful trickery. The "rappings," 
"table-tippings," etc., of fifty years ago were done with 
lights turned down, and there was much room for the asser- 
tion that it w T as all a sleight-of-hand performance ; but now 
these same things are done in open day, or under the glare of 
the evening lamp. All minds, however, are not alike, and 
hence every person can not be convinced by this one kind 
of spiritualistic manifestation. Telepathy and hypnotism 
and mind-reading seem more "scientific," and some of the 
educated are attracted to Spiritualism through these chan- 
nels. A still larger class is attracted to the mediums be- 
cause of the assurance that through them they can hold 
communion with their dead friends. So we might go 
through the list of the many ways that this many-sided 
Spiritualism has for attracting men into its bewitching, 
entrancing net. 

Satan is very cunning in his deceptions, and does not 
bring forward at first his greatest marvels ; but by degrees, 
and with numerous devices, he advances. The illiterate 
and superstitious, and even some who are well educated, 



72 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

are easily ensnared by "rappings" and the like. Others 
have to be taken in a more subtle snare; but in one way 
and another he is advancing, producing greater and still 
greater " wonders," and myriads in all the walks of life 
are being drawn into his various nets. In this way Spiri- 
tualism is stealthily gaining influence, preparatory to the 
master-deception of Satan, when he "maketh fire come 
down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men." Eev. 
13:13. 

Satan "knoweth that he hath but a short time." Eev. 
12 : 12. He also knows the prophecies that tell so vividly 
of that splendid scene when the Son of man shall appear 
in such dazzling glory; and hence deceptions are prepared 
to represent flaming fire in the heavens, and this "fire" 
comes down "on the earth in the sight of men." Thus he 
will seek to beguile the very ones who are following the 
Bible the most closely and who are looking for the com- 
ing of their Saviour in glory. Thus will Satan prepare 
the minds of men so that he can deceive them bv an at- 
tempt to counterfeit even the second coming of Christ itself. 
Who can withstand this great culminating deception, unless 
securely fortified against it by the word of God and a 
daily experience in following the leadings of the Light 
of the world? But we have the never-failing promise of 
our heavenly Father that none can be deceived who rely 
in faith upon the sure foundation. 

The prophet Isaiah, speaking in regard to those who 
have familiar spirits, says: "And when they shall say 
unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and 
unto wizards that peep, and that mutter : should not a peo- 
ple seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To 
the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according 



GKEAT DECEPTIONS 



73 



m/\ . t 



to this word, it is because there is no light in them. ' ' Isa. 
8 : 19, 20. Every one knows that there is scarcely a corner 
of the whole world in which ma}^ not be found the indi- 
vidual who has " familiar spirits" hovering about him. 
The "spirit medium" is now in nearly every neighborhood; 
and thousands of individuals who a few years ago scoffed 
at Spiritualism, considering it a superstition of 
the most ignorant, are embracing it to-day 
as a " wonderful" truth. More than 
twenty millions are claimed as be- 
lievers in, and consulters with, these 
"familiar spirits;" and if the exact 
statistics could be obtained, doubt- 
less it would be disclosed that a much 
greater number are in the toils of 
this delusion. Some of the heads of 
the most influential governments in 
the world, together with their chief 
counselors of state, are resorting to 
the spirits to direct them in national 
affairs, as well as in matters of les- 
ser importance. And thus do they 
literally fulfil the prediction that 
the "kings" of the earth shall be 
brought under the charm of the seducing spirits. 

There is nothing that the word of God more forcibly 
condemns than resorting to "them that have familiar 
spirits." "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, 
neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them : I am the 
Lord your God." Lev. 19: 31. "There shall not be found 
among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter 
to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an 




" A charmer, ... a wizard, 
or a necromancer." 



74 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, 
or a consult er ivith familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a 
necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomi- 
nation unto the Lord." Deut. 18:10-12. While millions 
are being deluded by these "familiar spirits," God has so 
arranged it that no one can ever be perfectly satisfied with 
what they have to offer. There is a vague mysticism about 
it all, and a fog of superstition hovers over it. It does not 
set the mind free, even though it may give it at times some 
degree of rest. The only thing that can perfectly satisfy, 
and render us perfectly sure both of the present and the 
future, is the truth which comes from God Himself. He 
employs no mediums except His word and the definitely 
specified operations of His Spirit. These are always plain, 
having no taint whatever of mysticism, and they fill the 
recipient with satisfaction and perfect peace and rest. 

No additional evidence need be given to show that Spiri- 
tualism — the " seeking unto familiar spirits" — is forbid- 
den by the word of God, and is a deception of the evil one. 
Reader, review again, and again, the warnings that God 
has given against the delusions of the enemy, prepared 
under his deceptive hand for these last days; and do not 
forget that the Master has said that His coming is " after 
[" according to"] the working of Satan with all power and 
signs and lying wonders," and that His earnest admoni- 
tion is, "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." 

THE CRY OF PEACE AND SAFETY. 

Next to this crowning delusion of Spiritualism prepared 
by Satan for these last days, perhaps there is no worse 
deception than the soothing doctrine of "peace and safety," 
that in our day is proclaimed by so many pens and voices. 



GREAT DECEPTIONS 75 

The word of God says, "All that will live godly in Christ 
Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Tim. 3: 12. This state- 
ment is direct, and no one who regards it will be found 
preaching " peace and safety" to the Christian so long as 
he remains in this present world of sin. For it is said that 
"all," not a part merely, but "all that will live godly in 
Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. ' ■ Another text says, 
"In the world ye shall have tribulation." It is only "in 
Me," the Master assures us, that we shall have "peace." 
John 16 : 33. 

The fact confronts us that the Christian church has 
ceased almost entirely to suffer persecution. Nor does it 
follow that this lack of persecution is wholly due to the 
general enlightenment of the age. Should we open our 
eyes fully to the situation, we would see that it is largely 
due to the fact that godliness "in Christ Jesus" has very 
greatly died out from the hearts of the professed Christians 
of to-day. All will agree that the Bible plainly teaches 
that there should be a clear-cut distinction between the 
church and the world; but does not observation impress 
each one's inner consciousness with the thought that our 
churches to-day are courting, and in turn being courted by, 
the devotees of this sinful life? 

Kead further from the word of God: "This know also, 
that in the last days perilous times shall come. ' ' And again : 
"Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiv- 
ing, and being deceived. " 2 Tim. 3 : 1, 13. In what startling 
contrast to the words of "peace and safety," so commonly 
heard, do these Scripture texts strike the ear! The great 
mass of teachers to-day are saying that the world is 
getting better and better, and that good times are ahead; 
but the infallible word says exactly the opposite. In no 



76 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

uncertain language are we told that "evil men and seducers 
shall wax worse and worse;" that "in the last days" not 
good but "perilous times shall come." Cast your eyes 
abroad on the conditions of the world to-day and see which 
states the true condition. How literally do the words of 
God tell the truth, in opposition to the false picture that 
so many people are presenting ! 

The word further states upon this point that "as the 
days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of 
man be." Matt. 24: 37. What the condition of things was 
in "the days of Noah" is made very plain in the Bible. 
It says, "God saw that the wickedness of man was great 
in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts 
of his heart was only evil continually. ' ' Gen. 6 : 5. All who, 
under the spell of the enemy, are being captivated by the 
belief that the world is rapidly getting better, should ponder 
these texts well. Our God reads the future, and He has 
given us a faithful portrayal of the true condition of things 
in the last days. The enchantments of a cunning foe may 
cause us to seem to see what does not exist, but we should 
believe the word of God, no matter how dazzling may be 
the presentations to the contrary. 

He with whom it is impossible to err has plainly told us 
that in the days when we are to be looking for the coming 
of the Son of man, as in the days of Noah, "the wickedness 
of man" shall be "great in the earth, and that every imagi- 
nation of the thoughts of his heart" shall be "only evil con- 
tinually." Since God has so directly spoken, who can 
assume to set aside His declaration by teaching the "peace- 
and-safety" fable that the world is growing better instead 
of "worse and worse," as the word declares? 

How can we fail to see that Satan has already so com- 



GREAT DECEPTIONS 77 

pletely soothed the world with his lullaby of " peace and 
safety" that it is well-nigh asleep? And while the sensi- 
bilities of many are being stupefied by this false doctrine, 
so that they will refuse to hear the ringing words of divine 
truth, the net of Spiritualism is being subtilely spread fur- 
ther to complete the ruin of the drowsy world. 

And the reader will have no difficulty in seeing that 
the foregoing are not the only deceptions that are arising 
in these times. "Christian Science," falsely so called, in- 
stils its delusive mysticisms into the mind, and multi- 
plied thousands have become enmeshed in its nets. This 
"science" claims to teach the Bible. It claims to pre- 
sent to the world the true God. But all its teaching has 
such an absurd, vague, and mystic air about it that were 
it not for its claims to have power to heal the sick, it is 
to be doubted whether any sane person would ever have 
accepted such views. 

There are many of the ills of the human body that are 
due to a diseased imagination; and when the "scientist" 
meets such persons and tells them "there is no such thing 
as sickness, that what appears as disease is only a delu- 
sion of the mortal mind," it can be readily seen how quickly 
a cure can be effected. In such persons there is no disar- 
rangement or disease of the organs of the body. Only the 
imagination has been affected. And reputable medical men 
have known for centuries that persons who have their imagi- 
nations thus out of balance can throw themselves into great 
suffering, and to the ordinary beholder they are sorely af- 
flicted with dangerous maladies. When the "scientist" 
meets such persons it is only necessary to tell them that 
disease is all a delusion, and get them to believe it, and they 
are immediatelv well. But the case is not on record where 



78 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

a broken limb or a really diseased organ lias had any heal- 
ing benefits from the methods employed by " Christian 
Science." It can be truly said that all claims to the con- 
trary are "in the mind." 

This "Christian Science" teaching throws the mind into 
such a condition that the realities of the promises of the 
second coming of Christ can not be seized upon or compre- 
hended. And just as we would prize an eternal existence, 
even so should we be on our guard against everything that 
can not be sustained by the literal words of the Bible. When 
we begin to clothe the Bible with mysticism by under- 
taking to tell what it means, we have entered upon dan- 
gerous ground. 

God tells us plainly how to treat His word. He says, 
"Consider what I say; for the Lord shall give thee under- 
standing in all things." 2 Tim. 2:7. It is what God 
says that we are to consider. We are neither authorized 
nor invited to consider what God means. We are to believe 
that He means what He says, and that He says what He 
means. Taking the Bible, as it is indeed, for the literal 
word of God to us, there is no place left for mystical or 
mythical teaching. Its warnings, its prophecies, its prom- 
ises, and its instruction, are all clearly seen and heeded.. 

All the other deceptions and delusions that Satan has 
devised and prepared with which to encloud the people of 
this generation so that they may not enjoy the hope, or 
sense the power, of the promises of Christ's soon coming, 
may be readily recognized if we take the word as our con- 
stant counselor and guide. Hence it will not be necessary 
to go further into the details of mentioning them. 

Beader, will you not heed the earnest and faithful warn- 
ings of the Lord's word? The heavenly Father has laid 



GREAT DECEPTIONS 



79 



the deceptions of the enemy so bare that we can not 
stumble into Satan's pitfalls while guided by Him who is 
the " Light of life." 

" Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man 
hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, 
and will sup with him, and he with Me." Eev. 3: 20. 

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they 
follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they 
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out 
of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater 
than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My 
Father's hand." John 10:27-29. 





^jRoi^rncJ^w^NMJ 



CHAPTER NINE 




HE preceding chapters are devoted to a review of 
some of the promises of the second advent of our 
Saviour, together with the Scripture warnings of 
the deceptions of Satan, with no attempt to present the 
evidence that the great day of the Lord's coming is near 
at hand. We have seen as the Scriptures were reviewed 
that many promises are left on record telling us that the 
Master will return in person, and no promises in all the 
Bible are made more prominent than the ones that assure 
us that Jesus will come "in the clouds of heaven," attended 
by "all the holy angels." The words of the Master are 
familiar, telling us that we should know "that He is nigh, 
even at the doors," and His apostle declares that "ye, breth- 
ren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you 
as a thief." 

In view of these scriptures the evidences pointing to 
the tokens of His coming must be abundant and clear. 

Some of the evidence that God has given by which we 
may discern the approach of the end of time, is in the 
form of connected chains of prophecy. These chains of 

80 



PROPHETIC OUTLINES 81 

prophecy record in advance the rise, decline, and over- 
throw of kingdoms and empires, giving a general view of 
the social and political scenery along the highway of time, 
ever keeping before us the coming of the Lord when the 
course of sin, sorrow, and distress will be ended forever, 
and the Christ of God will reign supreme. To understand 
these great chains of prophecy, a general knowledge of his- 
tory is required ; but all do not become historians, and there- 
fore those who may be deprived of this historical knowledge 
may not be able to understand such prophecies; but other 
evidence that all must see, and that every one may under- 
stand, is given by our heavenly Father. 

These chains of prophecy all point to the closing days 
of time. They tell us how we may know when the last clays 
of earth's history are at hand. Then there are evidences 
in addition to these connected chains of prophec}^ which 
have to do with the last generation of men, the generation 
that will be living on the earth when the Lord comes. In 
order that all who are living in that time may have the 
indisputable evidence that will cause them to knoiv "that 
He is nigh,' 7 there is given a minute description of the 
conditions that will prevail in those days. The evidence 
of the Master's coming must stand" above mere conjecture. 
Those who are without a knowledge of books, as well as 
the most learned, must be stirred by the unusual things 
about them and become anxious to know the meaning. What 
the Lord has to offer in the second coming of Christ is of 
too great value for Him to allow that event to come to the 
children of men without giving every one a vivid and clear 
view of the light that heralds its approach. 

Leaving to others the work of presenting the chains of 
prophecy which involve a knowledge of history, these pages 



82 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

will be confined to a consideration of the evidences of His 
coming which may be seen in the world to-day, even by 
those deprived of special education or large mental 
training. * 

As this evidence is examined, it will be seen that the 
Scriptures foretell a wonderful outpouring of the Spirit 
of God in the last days, an outpouring which will lead men 
to proclaim the gospel of peace and pardon, and the news 
of the Master's coming, to the ends of the earth. It will 
be seen that remarkable preparations have been made that 
this v work may be accomplished completely and minutely 
in an incredibly short time. What many persons will be 
actually saying in the last days is foretold. The prevalence 
of crime, violence, and vice, and the lack of judgment and 
justice, come under the view of the prophetic eye. There 
is also mention of the prominence that will be given to 
the forms of religion and godliness, while the actual living 
out of the principles in the teaching of Christ will be sadly 
lacking, the professor of Christianity being given to the 
love of pleasure rather than to the things of God. The 
amassing of great wealth and the consequent labor troubles 
are very clearly and unmistakably spoken of, as are also 
the general warlike preparations and conditions that will 
obtain among all the nations of earth. Even the elements 
of nature and the very earth itself have their story to tell 
amid the great chorus of voices which is summoning the 
universe to witness the dying agonies of everything that 
pertains to injustice, evil, and sin. 

When this evidence comes fresh to you from the book of 
God's word, it will make an impression on your mind. It 

* "Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation," by the late Prof. Uriah Smith, is one of the 
best books on these chains of prophecy. Professor Smith holds before his readers both the 
history and the prophecy, and it is a constant delight to observe how perfectly the great hand 
of Omnipotence has woven them together. 



PROPHETIC OUTLINES 83 

will, in all probability, present before you some duties to 
perform that may not seem altogether pleasant at first. 
And if you are not careful you will find yourself seeking 
to " argue the case" so as to make it appear to yourself 
that these things that God is giving to you are not true, 
and that, after all, the end of time and the coming of Christ 
are not so near-. Some neighbor or friend, who has not seen 
the light of God's word, or who may be resisting that light, 
will more than likely come along to help you to argue 
yourself away from the evidence that is so striking and so 
impressive. But God sends His Spirit to "guide you into 
all truth," and this messenger that invariably comes with 
every text of Scripture that is allowed to enter the mind 
will be speaking to you continually in a voice so low that 
no bystander can hear it, yet it Avill be so impressive in 
your own heart and mind that it will be the sounding of 
a trumpet in the depths of your soul. 

It is to this combined voice of God's word and God's 
Spirit that you are entreated to give heed. These entreaties 
and evidences from God's word and through the voice of His 
Spirit have come to you. You know the pressing weight of 
their convicting power. This is an evidence that God placed 
far beyond the counterfeiting abilities of mortals right in 
the very innermost recess of the citadel of your private self. 
If it is slighted, it will be the hardest thing that you will 
have to meet in that great day of judgment — that day that 
is even now right upon the world. There may be safety in 
slighting some of the sayings of men, but when the great 
Father of us all, even though unseen by the natural eye, 
speaks to us so plainly that we know of a surety that it is 
He, it is for our eternal good and everlasting joy and safety 
that we attentively listen. 



%!)$ (3ood %u>& 

of ttye* - 

Kingdom Sent to all ti)e t0orld 




CHAPTER TEN 




UR Lord is asked by His disciples, "What shall be 
the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the 



world?" Matt. 24 : 3. In answering this direct ques- 
tion, He gives, as one of the signs of His "coming," the 
fact that "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in 
all the world for a witness unto all nations ; and then shall 
the end come." Matt. 24: 14. Note how plain the Master 
makes His statement. "The end" will come when His 
"gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world." 
But consider what a vast work it is to proclaim "this 
gospel of the kingdom" to "all" There have stood Africa, 
India, China, Japan, and all the rest of the countries of 
the far East, together with many isles of the sea, peopled 
with their untold millions of souls, who have seemed to 
be securely shut away by themselves. Satan, apparently, 
had been successful in holding them back from any ray of 
gospel light. But nevertheless, the Lord has said that His 
"gospel of the kingdom" is to go to every nation in u all 
the world." And when the time arrives for its accomplish- 

84 



THE GOOD NEWS OF THE KINGDOM 85 

ment, every barrier is broken down, and God provides the 
means, wonderful though they may have to be, by which 
His work is to be accomplished. Japan is loosed, the bands 
of China are broken, India is made a central field of mis- 
sionary effort, the walls of intolerance in general are made 
to crumble, and the isles "wait for His law." 

Since God has spoken the word, why should we not ex- 
pect to see something in the way of giving the gospel to 
the world that will be so prominent as to be decidedly stri- 
king to every one who will stop long enough to give it con- 
sideration? And just as surely as the giving of the gospel 
to the world is to constitute one of the prominent evidences 
that the time has come for the end, even so surely will it 
be done in such a way as to show the all-pervading pres- 
ence of Jehovah moving in the majesty of His power in 
the midst of the great work. 

Several very important elements must come together 
and combine in such a work as giving the gospel to all 
the world. In the first place there must be such a break- 
ing down of the walls of intolerance as will permit the 
gospel to enter the various kingdoms and countries; then 
there must be facilities provided by which all the world 
can be readily reached. When Providence has thus opened 
the way for men to go everywhere, by breaking up the 
foundations of intolerance, and by providing means of 
travel and communication, there must combine with these 
elements a disposition on the part of a class of the people 
to give this world-wide gospel message. Men must actually 
be filled with the desire to do the work as well as to see 
the open doors for doing it. 

A combination of superstition, intolerance, and igno- 
rance, had built up such a religious despotism by the time 



86 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

of the Middle Ages that it would seem to any observer that 
all hope of a gospel message that was to place the offers 
of divine pardon and salvation before the whole world was 
securely cut off. But God had spoken the word and the 
way must be prepared. So, in the midst of the darkness 
of the sixteenth century there broke out that vast spiritual 
awakening that gave to a great extent intellectual as well 
as spiritual freedom to all Europe. 

The benign work of those years of gospel seed-sowing 
produced men in later times who began to have those strong 
heart-throbbings for the salvation of every one that could 
be reached in the whole human family. Heaven's longing 
desire to rescue perishing men began to kindle unquench- 
able flames of missionary zeal in the devoted minds of the 
followers of Christ. Charles Wesley set the world to sing- 
ing— 

''Lord of the harvest, hear 
Thy needy servants' cry; 
Answer our faith's effectual prayer, 
And all our wants supply. 

' ' On Thee we humbly wait ; 
Our wants are in Thy view; 
The harvest, truly, Lord, is great, 
The laborers are few. 

"Convert and send forth more, 
To spread Thy truth abroad; 
And let them speak Thy word of power, 
As workers with their God. 

"And though our bodies part, 
To different climes afar, 
Still ever joined as one in heart, 
The friends of Jesus are. 



THE GOOD NEWS OF THE KINGDOM 87 

"0, let us still proceed 
In Jesus' work below; 
And, following our triumphant Head, 
To further conquests go." 

The work has proceeded till the whole world stands as 
one vast congregation listening to the gospel message. 
From the frigid zones to the torrid, from Greenland and 
Siberia to Ceylon's isle and Sahara's plains, from health- 
ful climes to venom-infested and disease-breathing swamps 
and jungles, the story of Christ and the gospel message is 
to go and is going. Hearts and doors are opening in every 
land to receive it; men of every nation are giving them- 
selves to the work of proclaiming it ; and the continual sur- 
render of souls is bearing witness to the efficacy of the work 
that is being done. But while some are heeding, others are 
heedless and are grieving heaven by turning with stony 
hearts from the message. God will not compel any to ac- 
cept ; but He will have His invitation proclaimed in every 
clime "for a witness." Only another touch of divine power 
is needed, and the giving of the message of the gospel to 
all the world will be completed ; and then, when that work 
has been accomplished, according to the promise, "shall 
the end come." 





CHAPTER ELEVEN 



|E are living in an age of wonders. There have been 
such marvelous changes and developments during 
the past century that the world of to-day would not 
be recognized at all by the men who lived and died here a 
hundred years ago. Even those who have been dead but 
fifty years, if brought to life now, could hardly be con- 
vinced that this is the planet on which they spent their 
lives. Just imagine their amazement as they would view 
our " lightning express trains," our steamships, our elec- 
tric lights, electric cars, telephones, telegraphs, twine-bind- 
ers, sewing machines, and all the rest of the innumerable 
inventions and discoveries that the rushing activity of this 
generation has produced. Do you ever stop to consider 
the marvelous changes and advancements of the wonder- 

88 




f ul times in which we 

are now living ? And have 

you not sometimes reflected on what they may signify? 

The Scientific American celebrated its fiftieth anniver- 
sary by publishing in its issue of July 25, 1896, an outline 
history of the great advancement in the way of inventions 
and discoveries during the past fifty years. But in attempt- 
ing the task the editor said : 

"The material world has advanced so rapidly during 
the last half century, and with a pace so accelerated, that 
mankind has almost lost one of its most important faculties 
and one essential to happiness — that of surprise. . . . 
The most marvelous developments are taken as a matter 
of course. The condition of things fifty years ago is seldom 
pictured to the mind ; and all the material blessings which 
we now enjoy are used as conveniences of daily life, and 

89 



90 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 




EDWARD ENTWISTLE. 
(The first locomotive engineer.) 

Edward Entwistle's father was a sta- 
tionary engineer, and thus he himself be- 
came acquainted with stationary engines 
when he was a boy. At the age of tour- 
teen he .was apprenticed to the Duke of 
Bridgewater to serve in his machine-shops 
for a period of seven years. When En- 
twistle was about sixteen and one half 
years old, George Stephenson came to his 
foreman and asked for a man to run the 
"Rocket." Reply was made that they had 
no man, but that if he would go to the 
duke's steward and get his consent, he 
could have "the lad working on the lathe," 
and that they would warrant his giving 
satisfaction. He got the consent, and the 
next Monday Stephenson inaugurated the 
first public passenger service between Liv- 
erpool and Manchester, with Mr. Entwistle 
as engineer. 

They stopped at a place called Grand 
Junction, and the Duke of Wellington once 
alighted there from one of the coaches, 
and a friend, a Mr. Hutchinson, from an- 
other. As they were shaking hands in a 
crowd, there being considerable noise, they 
failed to see a gravel train of three cars 
approaching, and Mr. Hutchinson was 
caught and both legs were crushed, from 
which he died ten hours later ; and. thus 
Mr. Entwistle was a witness of probably 
the first railroad fatality. 

Mr. Entwistle ran the "Rocket" about 
two years, then he was engineer on a 
steamboat for four years, finally coming to 
this country and going back to loco- 
motive engineering. He stood by the 
throttle all together for sixty years. 



no more. . . . Notwithstand- 
ing the pages of matter and 
quantities of illustrations, we 
feel that the task of telling 
about the progress of a lifetime 
can at the least be only inade- 
quately performed — so much 
has been done.'* 

When we consider these 
wonderful inventions and dis- 
coveries, and take into account 
that these stupendous achieve- 
ments have nearly all been 
made during the lives of men 
now upon the stage of action, 
well may we ask, What does it 
all mean % Why were not some 
of these things invented in for- 
mer ages % And why has the de- 
velopment not been more grad- 
ual? However, instead of any 
of these great inventions being 
made in former times, or there 
being a gradual development in 
this field during a succession of 
centuries, it remained for the 
last sixty years suddenly to 
produce nearly all of this mar- 
velous change. 

Again, it is urged that we 
should pause to inquire, What 
does it mean? And why have 



A REMARKABLE CENTURY 



91 



not the intellectual giants of former ages discovered these 
things, or at least produced some of these modern inven- 
tions ? 

If we go back a hundred years, we find the w r orld doing 
very much as it did four thousand years ago. The most 
rapid travel by land was with horses ; the most rapid travel 
by sea was with sailboats. No form of thought or of new^s 
could be carried any faster than the horse or sailing vessel 
could go ; the work on the farm, in the shop and everywhere 
was all laboriously done by hand; an adjoining county or 
state was so far away that even the closest friends and rela- 
tives seldom communicated with each other. Thus it was 
in all the world till a hundred years ago. Then there comes 
a sudden change. Just 
a few decades pass by, 
and men are doing 
everything by vastly 
improved methods, 
and all the world is 
brought together as 
one neighborhood. 

Some men may see 
in all this nothing 
more than a vast ma- 
terial progress. But 
the Lord has said, 
"This gospel of the 
kingdom shall 'be 
preached in all the 
world," and how 
marked is His prepa- 
ration for His world- the "rocket." 

First locomotive in practical use, and which Mr. 
Entwistle operated. 




92 



HEKALDS OF THE MORNING 



<f ■ 



wide work ! The nations are being stirred. . The shackles of 
that old exclusiveness are being broken, and the inhabitants 
of every part of the globe are becoming acquainted with 
each other, preparatory to that great and final proclama- 
tion of "this gospel of the kingdom." 

The very fact, as has been pointed out in preceding chap- 
ters, that Christ has given His sure promise to come again, 
should be evidence to us that He will have that coming her- 
alded to the ends of the earth. But we see that He does not 
leave us to conjecture. He tells us plainly that "this gospel 
of the kingdom" shall be preached for a witness in all the 
world, and "then shall the end come." God has a time in 
mind when He will send His Son in person to earth again ; 
and the signs foretelling that much-to-be-desired event must 
be given to every nation, else they could not have the oppor- 
tunity to "knoiv that He is nigh." 

With some of the most populous nations groping in 
dense heathen darkness, and because of 
the barriers of religious intolerance 
isolated from the Christian por- 
tion of the world, as they were 
seventy-five years ago, and with 
the means of travel and commu- 
titkfl £ '-' nication existing in those days, 

how could so vast a work be 
accomplished ? But God has 
promised to give the gospel 
to every nation; and 
to accomplish so great 
a work we would ex- 
pect to see correspond- 
ingly great facilities. 

Overland in the middle 
z£T of the nineteenth century. 




A EEMAEKABLE CENTUEY 



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THE DeWITT CLINTON ENGINE AND TRAIN. 
Courtesy N. Y. Central R. R. 
The first railway train in New York. The omnibus was the only conception of a car in 
those days. The passengers on this train were very much annoyed by the sparks from the engine 
setting fire to their clothes. 




THE 20TH CENTURY LIMITED. 
Courtesy N. T. Central R. R. 
Photographed in the Highlands of the Hudson while running 90 miles an hour 
within about a hundred miles of where the DeWitt Clinton made its run. 
trip from New York to Chicago (980 miles) in 18 hours. 



and 
She makes the 



94 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



Who can fail to see 
the marvelous prepa- 
rations that have al- 
ready been made ? 
Those who are wholly 
absorbed in the things 
of this life may fail to 
note the sublimity of 
the plan that is now 
being worked out in 
the wonders of this 
age; yet here are the 
facts in striking real- 
ity. We should not 
become so absorbed in 
the mere use of the 
unprecedented inven- 
tions and discoveries 
of our day as to lose 
sight of the divine 
purpose for which 
they are so won- 
drously bestowed 
upon the world. 

In this connection 
we should observe 
that the most notable, 
the most useful, and 
the most highly per- 
fected of the inven- 
tions of this time are 
particularly and pe- 
culiarly adapted to 



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A REMARKABLE CENTURY 



95 



assist in giving the gospel message in all the earth. The 
printing-press is a marvel of ingenuity and perfection. It 
has been developed until there is no limit to the printed 
pages that it may produce. Then, to carry this matter 
when printed, the " flying express" trains and the " ocean 
greyhounds" have been provided, and both the speed and 
the capacity of these great facilities are being constantly 
augmented. In collecting the news and discussions of the 

World, the electric mMLm^™^^m^^^ ^m^™^mmMam 

telegraph is a most 
potent factor, des- 
patching the doings 
and sayings of all the 
world to the editor's 
desk in an incredibly 
short time. The press 
— the mighty educator 
— is doing its work. 
The fast mails are car- 
rying its products to 
all the world. No 
one thing absorbs 
the efforts of the press 

more than the promulgation of the gospel of the kingdom. 
Do you not see what it signifies? 

There can be no ground for doubt in regard to the mean- 
ing and purpose of the inventions and discoveries that have 
marked this generation as the wonder of all ages. But 
read another direct prophecy upon this point: "But thou, 
O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to 
the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowl- 
edge shall be increased. ' ' Dan. 12 : 4. 




The first "working" telegraph instrument. 



A REMARKABLE CENTURY 97 

The command is given to "shut up the words, and seal 
the book." But till what time are they thus "shut up" 
and "sealed"?— "Even to the time of the end." It will 
be noticed that the scripture does not say "the end," nor 
"the end of time," but "the time of the end;" that is, a 
brief period before "the end/ 9 in which great and striking 
changes are to take place, by which we are to know that 

On the opposite page the lower pie- " tlie eild " ls faSt apprOacllillg. 

S^ncXYn i^^^SSiSe'd 1 ^ That time is to be particularly 

1883, at a cost of $9,000,000, exclu- l i i ji ,1 i 

sive of land. The length of the span marked by the manv who 

across the river is 1,595% feet, and ,,■*-,-, -. ,, 

b h r id g e PP b°in g he the 0n t otaT h le„ e g« d h % X SjlaU TUU t0 <*»<* f™> **&, for- 

Sif'rimSSSd'g wat ,£ SS^H ther, by the fact that "knowledge 

pension bridge in the world. i n i • 111 

The new East River bridge, at Will- Sliali DC increased. 
lamsburg, shown in the upper picture, 

hLVt„d h !s B aC^o Bl i1fiu P ' t t The book of Daniel, from 

rwoo'Tet'Ldlhe^oUTengthT which the foregoing text is 

tween terminals is 7,200 feet; the 1 j ji -1 ;• , 

width is 118 feet: two hundred feet QUOted, glVeS tile prOplietlC Ollt" 

of the center of the bridge is 135 feet -,. n ji -1 • j n 

above the water It has four trolley- Ime OI tlie JllStOrV 01 tlie WOrM 

car tracks, two elevated railway tracks, ^ 

B^r'CVtTarffwfiuam'Zrg f™ the days of the old Baby- 
SiX^SWtaBrJaSSS'Brid^ Ionian Empire down to the end 

Still another bridge is projected that r? j • t jt j_ e 

is to further add to these marvelous 01 time. In tlie VeiT liatUl'e 01 
achievements for New York City. 

When the first of these great bridges tllingS tlie prOplieCV COUM not be 

was built it attracted wide-spread at- O xr xr 

structed one after another, and no par- UnClerStOOQ. Until tlie CVentS pre~ 
ticular note is made of them. i • x l T~ ill £d ' xi £ 1 

dieted should be sufficiently ful- 
filled to enable the individual to take up the thread of the 
prophetic narrative. Hence God's command to the 
prophet to seal the book till "the time of the end" — till 
the time when the prophecy should be sumciently a mat- 
ter of history that the meaning of it could be grasped. 
In other words, Jehovah gave the prophet a view of the 
history of the world, when that history was yet future, and 
told him to place the divine seal upon it, closing it until 

the time when it would be needed — "the time of the end." 

7 



98 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

Bible students are quite generally agreed that the run- 
ning to and fro spoken of in this text refers to a great awa- 
kening in the study of the Bible, particularly its prophetic 
portions, when the time of the end is reached. Dr. Adam 
Clarke, in commenting on the text, says, "Many shall en- 
deavor to search out the sense ; and knowledge shall be in- 
creased — by this means. Though the meaning shall not be 
fully known till the events take place, THEN the seal 
shall be broken; and the sense becomes plain." "Many 
shall give their sedulous attention to these things," is the 

manner in which another stu- 
dent expresses it. When the 
unfolding of events in the 
things of this world has bro- 
ken the seal from the proph- 
ecy so that men may readily 
understand it, still it will be 

First steamer carrying mail across the HCCCSSary IOr tliem 10 glVC their 

Atlantic 0cean - "sedulous attention" to the 

words of the prophet in order to see what God has so 
plainly revealed. It will be necessary to "search out the 
sense," if we would grasp the majestic sweep of the 
prophecy. 

"This gospel of the kingdom" that the Master tells us 
shall be "preached in all the world for a witness," in the 
very nature of things must include a definite and clear pre- 
sentation of what the kingdom of the Lord is. It must her- 
ald to the world the Lord's express revelation concerning 
the kingdom that He promises in this world-wide gospel 
message. "Many shall endeavor to search out the sense," 
and fully to understand the prophecies that tell us that the 
kingdom of the King of eternity is at hand. As the prophe- 




A REMARKABLE CENTURY 



99 



cies in all their fulness are seen ; as a realizing sense of the 
perfect fitting together of prophecy and history comes into 
the mind; and, especially, as it is seen that every striking 
feature that marks the world of to-day has been com- 
pletely photographed by the prophets hundreds of years 




STEAMER "LUSITANIA" DOCKING AT NEW YORK. 
Courtesy Cunard Steamship Co. 

She is 760 feet between perpendiculars, 785 feet on deck, 88 feet broad, and of 32,500 
tons displacement. At her maximum draft of 37 feet 6 inches she displaces 45,000 tons. She 
is the first of the big liners to use the turbine engines, and with her 70,000 horse-power, 
her speed is 25 a /2 knots an hour. 

The "Great Eastern" was built in 1858, was 680 feet long, 83 feet broad, displacement 
27,000 tons, 7,650 horse-power and a speed of 14.5 knots. After a thorough trial of the 
"Great Eastern" it was considered demonstrated that such large vessels were not practical. 
But human ingenuity has advanced step by step until we have all the marvels represented 
in the "Lusitania" and her sister, the "Mauritania." These ships have their palatial dining- 
rooms and parlors, their fine baths, and bedrooms, their passenger elevators, and by the 
wireless telegraphy they have the news of the world given to their passengers day by day 
as they make their speedy cruise across the expansive Atlantic. What amazing progress is 
made in the half century that intervenes between the building of the "Great Eastern" and 
the "Lusitania." 

ago, the hearts of men will be stirred by a superhuman 
power to lift their voices like trumpets as they tell to 
every creature in all the world that the glorious joys of 
eternity are here. " Sedulous attention' ' is given, the 
book is searched, and the message is proclaimed. Such is 



100 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



the program that the Book of books outlines, and such are 
the thrilling events and issues that are even now right be- 
fore the men and women who are upon the stage of action. 
How perfectly does this prophecy coincide and com- 
bine with the promise that the gospel of the kingdom 
shall be preached in all the world. The one is a promise 
of what shall be done, and the other tells us how men will 
get their inspiration for such a vast work. By giving 
their sedulous attention to searching out the sense of the 




Courtesy White JStar Line. 
Transatlantic steamship "Olympic," sister ship of the "Titanic." 

prophecies they will see that the time has come for the 
end of all things, and the gospel will be proclaimed to 
all with the great power that attends the definite knowl- 
edge that is based on the sure word of prophecy. 

There are some, however, who have thought that this 
running "to and fro" spoken of by the prophet has an 
application and a more literal fulfilment in the great facili- 
ties for travel and communication that have been developed 
within the last half century. But while it would seem per- 
fectly clear from a careful study of the text that it has 



A REMARKABLE CENTURY 



101 



reference to an unusual awakening in the study of the 
prophecy that was sealed till the "time of the end," yet 
we have only to look out upon the world to-day to see the 
literal running to and fro upon the earth. Man- 
kind has ever been inclined to move from 
place to place, but never be- 
fore have there been 
such facilities for travel 
and communication as 
have been provided 
in this generation. 
The persons are 
still living who tell 
us that they well 
remember when 
their journeying 
had to be done on 
foot, or on horse- 
back, or by the stage- 
coach. Hence, of ne- 
cessity, men were 
quite closely confined 
to one locality. But how 
is it now? If it is desired to 
cross the continent, instead of the journey requiring six 
months or more, as in the time of our fathers, we step on 
the "lightning express," and in four or five days are 
whirled from ocean to ocean. By the steel rail, traversed 
by the "flying" railway palace, every city, village, and 
hamlet is brought into speedy communication each with 
the other. To-day the dweller in New York or Boston 
speaks of a trip to Chicago or San Francisco about as our 




A great railway station. 



102 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



fathers talked of a journey to a neighboring village or an 
adjoining county. 

The improvement in travel by sea has been equally great. 
Fifty years ago a ship could accommodate only a few score 
passengers. These were slowly conveyed across the ocean 
in " cramped, ill-lighted, and stuffy cabins" upon the old- 
fashioned sailboats or the primitive paddle-wheel steam- 
ers that were then just coming into use. But to-day 
enough people to make a good sized village 
can have all the accommodations of a first- 
class modern hotel in one of our large ocean 
steamships, and they are carried in a few 
days from shore to shore across the expansive 
ocean. Wireless telegraphy has but re- 
cently been invented, and the monoto- 
nous isolation of travel by sea has been 
broken by the appearance of the daily 
paper, published on shipboard in mid- 
ocean. Thus do all these things unite 
the nations of the world so that they are 
brought together as next-door neighbors. 
With all this provision for travel 
by both land and sea, and with the great mass of our fel- 
low men who are continually going from place to place in 
pursuit of business or pleasure, how complete are the fa- 
cilities for giving this gospel of the kingdom to all the 
world! Who can estimate the millions of people that are 
at this moment in motion on railway and steamship ? The 
Railway Age informs us that the railroad travel in the 
United States alone for the year 1897 was equivalent to 
thirteen billion persons traveling by rail one mile each. 
And it is readily seen from these enormous figures that 




The old "Franklin hand-press. 



A REMARKABLE CENTURY 



103 



enough traveling was done in the country during that one 
year to have given each of the seventy million men, women, 
and children residing here, at that time, a ride of one hun- 
dred and eighty-five miles. But ten years later the fig- 
ures show that the number of miles traveled by all the 
people of the United States were 25,842,462,029, or an av- 
erage of 287 miles each for the 90,000,000 persons that, 
according to the latest estimates, are now in this country. 




The Hoe double octuple printing-press. 
'Imagine Franklin's surprise if he were now awakened." 

The amount of traveling that is done is not only enor- 
mous, but it is marvelously on the increase. 

Further mention, however, should be made of the high 
state of perfection to which the printing-press has at- 
tained. For, as already intimated, it has been, and ever 
will be, a most potent factor in spreading "this gospel of 
the kingdom." Although printing has been done for sev- 
eral hundred years, it remained for the last half of the 
nineteenth century to reduce it to one of the fine arts, and 
at the same time provide ingenious and rapid presses that 



104 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 




are capable of printing several million 
pages of matter in a single day. The 
old "Franklin hand-press," with but 
few improvements and modifications, 
was the best that had been produced 
at the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. But the first half of that cen- 
tury witnessed some very decided ad- 
vancements in the printing-press. 
These improvements, however, were 
only prophetic indications of what 

ROBERT FULTON. J ^ r 

The achievement by which he was to be accomplished during the 

is best known is his successful 

design of a practical steamboat, last f orty or fifty years. 

Franklin's press, which was decidedly useful and a 
great wonder in his day, stands now in the National Mu- 
seum simply as a curiosity. Passing down the long list of 
improvements that have been made in the printing-press 
since Franklin's time, we are brought to something more 

marvelous by far than any of the fa- 
mous " seven wonders" of the ancient 
world. We refer to the double octuple 
press, invented by Richard M. Hoe. 
This most ingenious machine has a ca- 
pacity for printing two hundred thou- 
sand copies per hour, or 3,300 per min- 
ute, of any of the great eight-page 
daily newspapers. The paper is reeled 
off eight rolls and travels through the 
press at the amazing speed of thirty- 
two and one-half miles an hour. This 
is a fair speed for a passenger train. 
This press being double octuple, it is 




SAMUEL F. B. MORSE. 

He maintained himself in 
early life as a portrait artist, 
but made himself world-famous 
by inventing and successfully 
operating the electric telegraph. 
Numerous other telegraph in- 
struments have been devised, 
but none of them have yet been 
found to equal the Morse. 



A REMARKABLE CENTURY 



105 



really eight presses working together 
in one, and when the whole machine is 
going, there are eight rolls of paper 
rushing through it at this passenger- 
train speed. 

The press is constructed so that it 
prints both sides of the paper as it 
glides through, and an ingenious at- 
tachment automatically cuts apart, 
pastes, folds, and counts the papers. 
Several men have to work quite briskly 
in taking the papers away from the 
press as they are printed. 

Imagine Franklin's surprise if he 
were now awakened from his short 
sleep of a hundred years, and brought 
at once into the presence of this most 
wonderful perfecting press. What 
would be his amazement to watch it, 
acting with all the precision and seem- 
ing intelligence of a human being, as 
it printed, cut, folded, and counted 
more papers per minute than the his- 
toric press he produced could deliver in 
a whole day. 

Without these modern perfecting 
" presses" the " great dailies," some of 
them with a circulation of nearly a mil- 
lion every twenty-four hours and being 
frequently required to print over a mil- 
lion a day on special occasions, could 
not, at a merely nominal price, emanate 




PETER COOPER. 
A pioneer in iron work, he 
built the first locomotive in 
America, made the first wrought- 
iron beams for fire-proof build- 
ings, and was the untiring sup- 
porter and financial backer of 
the first Atlantic cable. Was 
a great philanthropist, and a 
strong promoter of industrial 
education. He thought it es- 
sential to give "instruction in 
branches of knowledge by 
which men and women earn 
their daily bread." 




CHARLES GOODYEAR. 
Was the pioneer in the manu- 
facture of india-rubber goods. 
He struggled amid the most 
overwhelming discouragements, 
and was a popular subject of 
ridicule while seeking to perfect 
his processes, but his hard 
work and persistency were suc- 
cessful in transforming this ridi- 
cule into well-merited praise. 



106 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 




SIR HENRY BESSEMER. 



from our large cities to greet the intel- 
ligent reading public of our time. And 
while speaking of the daily newspaper, 
we should also take into account the 
modern facilities for printing and cir- 
culating magazines, books, pamphlets, 
and tracts. With all these things be- 
fore us, is it not forcibly impressed 
upon the mind that the preparation 
tto^lw&T^^ for Pacing a knowledge of "this gos- 
^ctw^isTleTs^thl pel of the kingdom " before all the 

production of steel which, with n t • i i j • • j_ 

but very few improvements, has WOrld 111 a VdW SllOlT time IS mOSt 
been in use for nearly fifty 

y ears - ample and complete ? 

But, notwithstanding the far-reaching possibilities of 
the printing-press, what could it accomplish if the great 
mass of the people were unable to read, as was the case a 
century or so ago ? And here, again, we may note, as one 
of the wonders of our time, the world-wide enthusiasm 

that is thrown into the work of edu- 
cating all the people, at least so far as 
to enable them readily to read and 
write. The nation that does not pro- 
vide a good common-school education 
for all its common people is already 
marked to withdraw in disgrace from 
the marching columns of progress, 
while the person who is not able to read 
at least in his native tongue, is looked 
upon with pity, and often with disgust 




C. H. M'CORMICK. 

Made world-famous by his in- and reproach 

ventions of harvesting machin- 
ery. In 1831 he built with his 
own hands the first practical 
reaping machine that was ever 
made. 



Here, again, our minds are forcibly 
drawn back to the prophecy that at 



A REMARKABLE CENTURY 



107 




GUGLIELMO MARCONI. 
The inventor of wireless teleg- 



"the time of the end, many shall run 
to and fro, and knowledge shall be in- 
creased." A knowledge of the great 
prophecy that is for this "time of the 
end" could be possible only in a time 
when there was a general diffusion of 
education, so that men might read and 
understand. How perfectly do the 
parts of this great prophetic structure 
come together! The press prints the 
books, the magazines, the papers, in 
such abundance that all can have ac- ra ^y 
cess to them, and then a mighty wave of education places 
within the reach of all the people the ability and oppor- 
tunity of reading them. 

While considering the marvelous capacity of the print- 
ing-press, we should not lose sight of the most ample pro- 
vision that has been made for gathering intelligence from 
every nook and corner of the whole 
earth. It was on May 24, 1844, that 
the famous message, "What hath God 
wrought ! ' ' was suggested by Miss Ells- 
worth, and flashed by the electric cur- 
rent from Washington to Baltimore; 
and since that date the applied genius 
and business activity of such men as 
Morse, Edison, Delaney, Stearns, 
Field, Cooper, Mackay, Marconi, and 
others, have not only threaded the sev- a dvn and mechanical en g i- 

.. . . „' ,_. 'ii ii neer. His improvements on the 

eral COntinentS OI OUr WOrld Wltll tlie steam-engine embodied in prin- 
ciple the essential features of 

electric telegraph, but have connected *• £•£•* f^iS 
these continents by the ocean cable, ?, h s a k v h e e n,„ h r ° ttm been styled 





THOMAS A. EDISON. 
("The Wizard of Electricity.") 
Among his most important inventions 
are his system of sending as high as six 
telegraph messages over the same wire at 
the same time; the phonograph; the incan- 
descent electric lamp, and his system of 
the commercial subdivision of the electric 
light so that it can be generally distributed 
the same as gas. It is interesting to note 
that on the year previous to Edison's 
achievement, a committee of the English 
House of Commons had decided that such 
a subdivision of electricity was impossible. 




CYRUS W. FIELD. 



He conceived the idea of an Atlantic 
cable, laid the matter before Peter Cooper, 
Moses Taylor, Marshall O: Roberts, and 
Chandler White, who, with himself, agreed 
to give large sums of money for its ac- 
complishment. He spent thirteen years of 
hard work on the problem, made several 
unsuccessful attempts to span the ocean 
with a cable, and finally on July 27, 1866, 
he established telegraphic communication 
between this country and the Old World, 
and it has been kept up without interrup- 
tion until the present. 

John Bright styled him "the Columbus 
of modern times, who, by his cable, had 
moved the New World alongside of the 
Old." 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



and still later by the wireless 
electric stations, so that the in- 
habitants of the entire globe are 
made to seem to each other as 
dwellers of the same village ; for 
the doings to-day of those living 
in the United States are cabled 
to the Old World at once, and 
may be read immediately in the 
columns of their daily papers; 
while an account of what is oc- 
curring in Europe, Asia, Africa, 
South America, and even far-off 
Australia and the isles of the 
sea, comes gliding over the wires 
to us, and we are reading all the 
doings of those distant lands in 
just a few moments after the 
deeds are done. 

The inspired words that 
were chosen as the first tele- 
graphic message come vividly to 
mind again; for we may 
well say, "What hath God 
wrought ! ' ' How marvelous in- 
deed are the preparations that 
the Lord has made to proclaim 
to all the world that most pre- 
cious promise, "I will come 
again." And with all these 
modern facilities for communi- 
cating knowledge, how literally 



A REMARKABLE CENTURY 



109 



will God fulfil His word, "This gospel of the kingdom 
shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all 
nations/' God has a precious message for "all the world/' 
It is not a part merely that is to be reached; but all are to 
hear the welcome tidings that Jesus is coming again. How 
impressive, how abundant, how perfect, are the 

preparations to give to all j the good news of our 



the nations, by 
the steamship, 




Master's return! All 
means of the railway, 
the printing-press, 
and telegraph, are 
brought into commu- 
nication as one great 
assembly, and are 
now hearing the mes- 
sage from God's own 
word that the Sa- 
viour is about to 
come. 

The facilities for 
carrying God's mes- 
sage being so abun- 
dantly prepared, we a ^j t 
should begin 
watch for the next step in the divinely complete plan. This 
gospel of the kingdom will inevitably "come to the front, 
and become the theme of world-wide discussion, if neces- 
sary even through the contempt that is placed upon it." 
Every phase of God's great truth for these last days will 
be considered and reconsidered, and men will rapidly 
range themselves on one side or the other of the great 
question involved; and when this intense discussion 



Eastern" laying the Atlantic cable scarcely half 
century ago. To-day the wireless telegraphy seems des- 
i-_. tined to make the cable unnecessary. 




Courtesy "Scientific American.' 

GIRDLING THE GLOBE BY WIRELESS. 

One of a series of wireless telegraph stations being installed by the United States govern- 
ment with a view to securing instant communication between naval headquarters at Wash- 
ington and any United States war-ship in any part of the world. 



A REMARKABLE CENTURY 



111 



reaches the point where it is an issue in every part of the 
globe, how swiftly will the gospel do its work! 

The reader will call to mind numerous instances where 




Courtesy the "Scientific American." 

M. Edouard Belin and his apparatus for telephotography, by means of which pic- 
tures may be sent by telegraph from one place to another. His apparatus is wholly 
mechanical. A carbon print of the photograph to be sent is placed on a revolving 
cylinder and a stylus traveling over this print imparts the picture through being 
sufficiently sensitive to note the differences of relief in the original. 

some overtowering event has stirred the whole world so 
that every person was keenly awakened to discuss it. The 
daily papers are impatiently awaited and eagerly scanned 
for the latest news by cable or " wireless." Every agency 
is placed at the command of the news gatherer, while 



112 



HEKALDS OF THE MOKNTKG 



surging crowds seethe about the offices of publication to 
catch from the bulletin boards the most recent scraps of 
information that can be gleaned from the wires. And even 
in the brief space between the time when the pen is tracing 

these paragraphs and 
the few weeks later 
when the reader may 
have them in type, 
something is liable to 
occur that will agitate 
the world, greater than 
any of the things of the 
past. And so we see 
how issues now may 
suddenly become world- 
wide, and all the people 
everywhere engage in 
their discussion and 
soon become intelligent 
concerning them. 

Now, when the 
spark of divine power 
shall set all the modern 
agencies in motion, how 
swiftly must the Mas- 
ter 's last great work 
be done! Those who 
have been unfamiliar with the Bible will learn of its con- 
tents; they will see the clear evidence that surrounds us 
showing that the Saviour is about to return; and only a 
Yery short time will be required for each individual to 
come to the place where he will make his final stand for 
or against the Lord's Christ. 




Courtesy the "Scientific American." 

An outdoor picture transmitted by telephotography 
showing a sample of the work done by Belin's ap- 
paratus. 



._ Ttte BifiU AMONG IH€ P€GPC€ 





CHAPTER TWELVE 




ECALLINQ- again the prophecy of Dan. 12 : 4, let 
us study it anew. The prophet states that " knowl- 
edge shall be increased, ' ' and it should not be over- 
looked that this is to be in "the time of the end." 

As has. already been suggested, this scripture foreshad- 
ows a general intelligence among the people at the time 
when the prophecy applies; but for its direct and literal 
fulfilment we must look for a movement that brings the 
Bible itself within the reach of every one. For it is the 
Bible that contains the message and promises of "this 
gospel of the kingdom. " As we look for this thing in par- 
ticular we find that among all the great marvels of this 
marvelous age of material development, progress, and in- 
vention, nothing stands out more clearly or more strongly 
than the facts concerning the vast number of copies of 
the word of God that have been printed and circulated 
during the past century. 

Notwithstanding the interest that had been awakened 
in the Scriptures by the Reformation, the beginning .of 
the nineteenth century found Bibles still so scarce, and the 

8 113 



114 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



price so high, that but few persons could afford a copy of 
the sacred Book ; and oftentimes they would walk miles to 
hear the Bible read. 

But in March, 1804, the British and Foreign Bible So- 
ciety was organized; the American Bible Society was 
founded in May, 1816; and in connection with these two 




COMBINED HARVESTER AND THRASHER. 
Courtesy The Best Manufacturing Co., San Leandro, Cal. 

One of these machines harvests an average of 1,000 sacks of grain, or, in other words, 
from 65 to 100 acres, cut, thrashed, recleaned, and sacked in one day, doing the work of 
100 men and 50 horses. To the same traction-engine may be attached a machine that 
plows, harrows, and seeds from 35 to 70 acres a day. The amount of work done depend- 
ing on the lay of the land, etc. When harrowing only, a harrow 75 feet wide is used, and 
from 100 to 125 acres a day is worked. 

leading societies, hundreds of auxiliary societies have been 
formed, all with the one purpose in view of placing the 
Bible in the hands of all the people in both civilized and 
heathen lands. Through the combined efforts of all en- 
gaged in this work, the Bible, either entire or in parts, is 
now read in over five hundred and twenty-five languages 



THE BIBLE AMONG THE PEOPLE 



115 




"The hammer, 
anvil, and forge." 



and dialects. It is being printed 
at the rate of more than ten 
mm million two hundred fifty 
thousand copies a year; 
and over three hundred 
million copies have been 
circulated since the British 
and Foreign Bible Society 
was organized. 

For the first fifteen hun- 
dred years of the Christian 
era only a very few per- 
sons could afford a com- 
plete copy of the Bible. 
The Reformation came, how- 
ever, and awakened a deep interest in it; and while men 
were able, with the crude printing facilities of that time, 
to produce a limited number of copies entire, yet they 
could not nearly supply the demand. The 
cost of printing and binding with the 
means at hand previous to this century 
was ever a strong barrier against pla- 
cing the sacred Book in the hands of 
all the people. Then, too, the gen- 
erous-hearted men had not yet k 
arisen who would devote their 
lives and their fortunes to the 
work of giving the Bible to 
all, and in the familiar lan- 
guage of their native land. 

But, lo! "the time of the end : 
arrives; and by a touch of supernatural 

slowly made by hand. 




ii6 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



power the sleepy world that has been dreamily moving 
along, with but very few improvements in its material 
life to break the tedious monotony, suddenly becomes in- 
tensely agitated. Within the short span of a single life- 
time the printing-press is brought to a marvelous per- 
fection; the railway and the steamship within the same 
time are developed to the point where they seem to carry 
us from place to place as on the wings of the wind; elec- 
tricity conveys our thoughts from city to city and from 
continent to continent with the speed of lightning; and 



then the word 
knowledge, is 
these agencies 
to the nations 




The steam-hammer at work. By its use 
forgings can be made too colossal for even 
the imaginings of our grandfathers. 



of God, which is the great fountain of 

printed by the million copies, and all 

spring forward to carry it swiftly 

and tongues of the earth. 

How literal, how com- 
plete, how marvelous, is 
the fulfilment of that 
divine prediction that in 
"the time of the end" 
"knowledge shall be in- 
creased"! That word 
which makes it possible 
for us to know the 
promise of the coming 
One; that word which 
reveals to us the evi- 
dences by which we 
may know that we 
are in "the time of the 
end;" that word which 
gives "this gospel of the 
kingdom;" that word 



THE BIBLE AMONG THE PEOPLE 117 

which is indeed a veritable lamp unto our feet, and a 
light unto our path, disclosing to our otherwise benighted 
vision what the marvels of our day really mean — that 
word is now, by the multiplied millions of copies, scat- 
tered throughout the world. Those who have means may 
purchase it at the most reasonable prices, while the gen- 
erosity of our great Bible societies has provided it "with- 
out money and without price" to those too poor or too 
indifferent to buy. God has surely done His part. He 
has fulfilled His prophetic promises so completely that 
we should be led in wonder and adoration to acknowledge 
their literal truth. 

While mentioning particularly the wonderful inven- 
tions of our time which make it possible for "this gos- 
pel of the kingdom" speedily to reach the remotest bound- 
aries of earth, it may not be out of place to note, in 
passing, what has been accomplished in general in the 
great field of learning, discovery, and invention. It would 
be a wearisome task, however, even if space permitted, 
to make the merest mention of all that has been done. 
Vast and varied, almost beyond description, are the 
achievements of this age. Yet the people are so intent on 
driving their business or reveling in their pleasures that 
they are scarcely conscious of the surpassing realities of 
to-day. 

A few contrasts will perhaps serve best to bring the 
conditions and attainments of this time vividly before the 
mind: 

Fifty years ago the simple needle and thimble were 
the implements with which the housewife did her sewing; 
to-day she has a machine to do this work for her. 



118 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



Fifty years ago our stockings were knit by hand; to- 
day a girl with her knitting-machine can knit more stock- 
ings in a day than a whole neighborhood of women could 
have done in those times. 

Fifty years ago all our grain was cut with sickle or 
cradle-scythe, and our hay mowed by hand; to-day the 
farmer has his mowing-machine, and that marvel of mod- 
ern ingenuity, the combination reaper and twine binder, 
and also the combined harvester and 
thrasher. 

Fifty years ago our mothers and 
sisters took the wool and flax, spun 
the thread, and wove the cloth that 
made our clothes; now the spin- 
ning-wheel and hand-loom are rele- 
gated to the curiosity-shop, and the 
§j steam-loom, with its associated ma- 
chinery, is doing the work. 

Fifty years ago the carpenter had 
to plane his boards, match his flooring, 
make his doors, sash, and, in fact, work 
out practically all his building material by hand; now a 
great variety of wood-working machinery does about all 
his work for him, with accuracy and workman-like beauty. 
Fifty years ago the hammer, anvil, and forge were 
the principal instruments for making things from iron; 
but the forge and anvil have only a modest and obscure 
corner in the modern shop, while numerous kinds of iron- 
working machines are rolling out the work. 

Fifty years ago, with hammer, awl, last, and pegs, our 
boots and shoes were slowly made by hand; to-day ma- 




"The simple needle and 
thimble were the implements 



THE BIBLE AMONG THE PEOPLE 119 

chinery makes our foot-wear with a speed and deftness 
that are truly amazing. 

Fifty years ago all our writing was done with the 
pen; to-day the typewriter does it much more neatly and 
rapidly. 

Then we spent our evenings in the dim light of the 
tallow candle; now the kerosene lamp, gas, acetylene, or 
electric light transforms darkness into almost the bril- 
liant light of day. 

But, not to make this comparison tedious, 
it may be said in a word, Let the progress 
of the last fifty years be destroyed, and 
we would have taken from us prac- 




tically such other inventions t'-*»i 
and discoveries as the tele- *imM 
phone, cable and electric street- 
cars, vulcanized rubber goods, 
photoengraving, photolithographing, 
the kodak, the gas engine, the passen- 
ger elevator, asphalt pavement, the steam 
fire-engine, the triple-expansion steam- "Today she has a machine. 
engine, the turbine steam-engine, the Gifford injector, 
celluloid, time-locks for safes, machines for making ice, 
the phonograph, the graphophone, stem-winding watches, 
the great suspension-bridges, steel-frame buildings, iron- 
clad war-ships, revolvers, breech-loading guns, magazine 
guns, Gatling guns, torpedoes, typesetting machines, 
wireless telegraph and telephone, the knowledge of 
microbes and disease germs, together with a myriad of 
other things in the medical line, discoveries without 
number in the general field of science, air-brakes, nitro- 
glycerine, acetylene, dynamite and guncotton, Bessemer 



120 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



% that 

■, Is 



and Harveyized and Kruppized steel, the automobile, mo- 
torcycle, and airship, argon, polonium, radium, etc., etc., 
etc. It is useless to enumerate further. So great has been 
the activity in this field of invention and discovery, so vast 
have been the achievements, that the mind becomes weary 
in contemplating the endless array. 

The remarkable part of it is that men still living can 
trace from memory all the great changes and develop- 
ments that enter into this wonderful age. Mr. 
Edward W. Byrn, A. M., has well said 
the past fifty years represent 
an epoch of invention and progress 
unique in the history of the world. 
It is something more than merely 
a normal growth or natural de- 
velopment. It has been a gi- 
gantic wave of human ingenuity 
and resource, so stupendous in 
its magnitude, so complex in its 
diversity, so profound in its 
thought, so fruitful in its wealth, 
so beneficent in its results, that 
the mind is strained and embar- 
rassed in its efforts to expand to a full appreciation of 
it. Indeed, the period seems a grand climax of dis- 
covery, rather than increment of growth. . . . The 
negative conditions of that period extend into such an 
appalling void that we stop short, shrinking from the 
thought of what it would mean to modern civilization 
to eliminate from its life those potent factors of its ex- 
istence/' 




"The carpenter had to 



get 



out practically everything by hand." 



THE BIBLE AMOK T G THE PEOPLE 



121 



Standing in full view of all these things, can there 
be any doubt that we are in the "time of the end"? As 
we see how literally all the world has been brought to- 
gether by these modern inventions, can there be any doubt 
that the Master has made ample provision to have "this 
gospel of the kingdom preached in all the world for a 




An opening made in the old historic wall of China to admit a railroad into Peking. 
From Stereograph, copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New Yorlc. 

witness unto all nations"? And just as soon as the 
world hears the joyful message of "His glorious appear- 
ing," "then shall the end come." 

The gladdest of all glad days is almost here. On every 
hand may be seen and heard the heralds of the morn- 
ing. And by every one of these heralds we are invited 
to get ready to sit as joyful guests at the "marriage 



122 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



supper of the Lamb." The invitation is now being pro- 
claimed in all the world; and it reads, "And the Spirit 
and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, 
Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whoso- 
ever will, let him take the water of life freely." Eev. 
22:17. 

All are invited guests. Will not you allow the sin- 
ner's Friend, your Saviour, to robe you in the wedding 
garment for that feast? "In Thy presence is fulness of 
joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures f orevermore. " 
Ps. 16:11. 





CHAPTER THIRTEEN 




HE developments that mark this as the most won- 
derful age of all time are well known; but men are 
generally so intent on observing and enjoying the 
material advancement that has been made, that they do 
not realize that the past century has been as wondrousl} 
marked by its missionary operations as 
by its advancement in discovery and 
invention. 

Notwithstanding the fact that the 
Reformation of the sixteenth century 
was one of the greatest periods of 
spiritual activity in the church since 
the days of the apostles, yet there was 
john Eliot. Born in Na- connected with it no suggestion or 

sing, England. 1604. Early °° 

chose the ministry for a lite- movement worthy of mention, m the 

work. Well versed m Hebrew J ' 

L n \6?r k pionS^ m ^ioS| direction of carrying the gospel to the 
ind^afis.^HfTr^nsiaTeT^he outlying heathen lands. The burden 

Ten Commandments, t h e ^ 

Lord's Prayer, and later the ± the Ketormers seemed to be to urge 

Bible, into a native tongue. ~ 

He died m 1690. ^he sav i n g gospel upon the church it- 

self ; for the professed Christianity of that time was so 
formal and dead, so spiritually blind and ignorant, and so 
full of superstition, that it really stood on a level with, 

123 




THE GOSPEI/S PROGRESS 



125 



if not below, the non-professing heathenism of India, 
China, and Japan. 

The importance and necessity of sending missionaries 
to the countries where the gospel light had not gone, was 
suggested by individuals at different times, and urged 
upon the attention of the church; but the way was not 
yet opened for this work to begin in earnest. God did 
not have either agents or agencies prepared ; for mankind 
had sunk so low that several centuries of the full blaze 




Bible House, New York. Home of the American Bible Society. 

of gospel truth were needed to fit them for the work of 
evangelizing the heathen world. Such missionary efforts 
as were put forth during the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries partook in too many instances of the forceful 
methods that were employed in the darker ages. Speak- 
ing of some of the missionaries of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, a historian tells us: "We know that unevangelical 
means were soon employed, as in Ceylon, where the Dutch 
governor made the tenure of even the lowest governmental 
position, and even the governmental protection, condi- 



126 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 




tional upon signing the Helvetic Confession. Thousands 
pressed to baptism, which was denied to no one who 
could repeat the Lord's Prayer and the 
Ten Commandments. " 

Thus the greater part of the mis- 
sionary work that was attempted in 
those times partook more of the na- 
ture of politics than of the presenta- 
tion of the pure, free, saving gospel of 
Jesus Christ. 

zx2J^oS c pJ £ gS But during the latter part of the 
H^'efriy^am^ntrcoilee- eighteenth century the Wesleys, White- 

tion with some of the scat- ~ -, , -, ,-. -,*. . 

tered followers of John Huss, neld, and others, were doing their 

the Moravians, and became ' ° 

{,Ss 1 a e m a onrthem He for fo mTre mighty work. The voyages and dis- 
fcat'wo^'S'/yprTachei coveries of Captain Cook imparted a 

his memorable sermon, they . tit i 

had 27 stations, and S np- new interest to what seemed then to 

ported 165 missionaries. He 

died in 1760. ^ e ^ u f ar-away " portions of the 

world, and to the islands of the sea as well. When the 
nineteenth century entered upon its altogether unprece- 
dented career, Andrew Fuller, William 
Carey, John Williams, Judson, and 
numerous other devoted missionaries, 
with earnestness and intelligent zeal, 
and the throbbings of Christian love, 
stood ready to plant the banner of the 
cross in every dark corner of the in- 
habited globe. 

!r . Bartholomew Ziegen- 

As those devoted men, with their balg. Born June 24, i683, in 

Pullsnit, Saxony. Danish pio- 

no less devoted wives, entered upon JJJ* ^lt n ^tg Tr nS!v 

ii i t t t • -it grammar nor dictionary in 

their great work, observe how rapidly native tongue, yet in less 

. than a year he was preach- 

Clod moved upon other minds to pre- in ^ , an 4 . *°g* ^ ere + con ; 

Jr Jr verted. His New Testament 

pare the needed facilities for carrying iny T ianguaIe as f th indfl st in 




THE GOSPEL S PROGRESS 



127 




'"this gospel of the kingdom" with rapidity into "all 
the world," for a "witness unto all nations." While 
Carey, Judson, and Williams were 
planting the banner of the cross in the 
very strongholds of the barbarous and 
heathen lands, Charles, and Farn, and 
Hughes, and Steinkoph, and Owen, 
and Wilberforce, and Mills, and Bou- 
dinot, with many others, were laying 
the broad and deep foundations for 
the British and Foreign and the Amer- 
ican Bible Societies. . 

As late as 1777, while the Revolu- 
tionary War was in progress, Con- 
gress was memorialized to print thirty 
thousand Bibles to supply the demand. But a lack of both 
paper and type made it impossible for this work to be 
done ; so the committee on commerce was empowered to 
import from Holland, Scotland, or else- 
where, twenty thousand copies, at the 
expense of Congress. But they were 
also unable to carry out this scheme. 
In 1794, at the age of ten, Mary 
Jones, a little Welsh girl, began to lay 
by all the money she could possibly 
save, with which to purchase a Bible. 
In 1800, after six years of careful sav- T 19 t ee \Tei\i'w?^nrl: 



Christian Frederick 
Schwartz. Born in Sonnen- 
burg, Prussia, Oct. 28, 1726, 
and died Feb. 13, 1798, in 
India. Educated at Halle, as 
were Zinzendorf and Ziegen- 
balg. Began labors in India, 
1750. In 12 years he had 
baptized 1,238. The last 20 
years of his life in Tanjore. 
He died beloved and re- 
spected by all. 




ing, she found herself in possession of was th ied fr b c y a, a J l?act 3 to 1 |ive 

„., ti n j l bis life to missionary work, 

Slie Walked twenty- and sailed in 18 19 to Ceylon 

^ under the American Board. 

+1-1A "PPQirlpm^P H"F * n i83 6 was transferred to 

me lebiuencL ul MadraSi where he founded a 



the required sum. 
five miles to Bala, 



Rev. Thomas Charles, to whom she ££ ^T^XF^tZ 

, , , -, . , •, , , TXT-T -1 n 1 Cape of Good Hope for his 

had been directed. When she nrst health, where he died. 



128 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



applied to Mr. Charles, and was told that the few copies 
he had were reserved for persons who had already made 
application for them, she burst into tears and sobs. The 
fond hope of years seemed to be blasted in a moment. 




The Bible House, Queen Victoria Street, London, with the Dome of St. 
Paul's Cathedral in the background. One of its chief treasures is its library 
of 10,000 samples of Bibles in over 500 languages and dialects. 

These evidences of her sad disappointment led Mr. Charles 
at length to say, 'My dear child, difficult as it is to spare 
you one, it is impossible — yes, simply impossible — to re- 
fuse you.' And so she obtained the Bible, which, for 



THE GOSPEL 's PROGRESS 



129 



the sixty-six remaining years of her life, was her most 
cherished possession." 

This was the condition a hundred years ago in the 




The Vestibule, Bible House, of the British and Foreign Bible Soc 



ciety. 



British Isles, the very home of Bible houses and Bible 
societies. Eighteen ' hundred years of the Christian era 
had passed away, and still the vital germs of gospel truth 
had been so combated by the gross darkness of super- 



130 HERALDS OF THE MOENING 

stitious error that it was with the greatest difficulty and 
sacrifice that one of God's children could procure a copy 
of His word. 

Bibles in those times, neither in this country nor 
abroad, were supplied in sufficient quantities or at a price 
low enough for the poor to possess copies of the sacred 
word; but the Bible societies that sprang into existence 
during the first two decades of the nineteenth century 
were not long in providing facilities for placing the Bible 
in every home of the whole wide world. In 1806 the 
British and Foreign Bible Society was able to send its 
first wagon-load of Bibles into Wales. "It was received 
like the ark of the covenant; and the people, with shouts 
of great joy, dragged it into the city." But to-day car- 
load after carload is shipped from the storerooms of our 
great Bible societies, and Wales is not alone in rejoicing 
over supplies of the Book of books. 

Missionaries have gone to many heathen tribes that 
had no literature, and consequently no written language. 
These faithful messengers of the gospel have patiently 
labored until they have reduced these tribal dialects to 
written speech, and then have translated the Scriptures 
into the words that these people can comprehend. And 
now in every nation, also in the islands of the oceans, 
in over 525 languages and dialects, the Bible is being fur- 
nished by millions of copies. Over ninety million dollars 
were expended by our Heaven-appointed Bible societies 
during the nineteenth century in giving the Scriptures 
to those who were destitute of the true riches offered 
in the divine precepts and promises. 

What an undertaking it was thus to give the word 
of God to all the world! And how miraculous is the 



THE GOSPELS PROGRESS 



131 



success with which it has been performed! All through 
the dark centuries, indestructible and all-powerful truth 
was only waiting for the preparation of sufficient soil in 
which to find a lodgment; and now, towering up in its 
stupendous growth, it outstrips all the marvels of all 
the ages! 

These favorable 
conditions were not 
reached, however, 
until "the time of 
the end"; but that 
time having arrived, 
the whole world is 
stirred to perform 
God's great work. 
The teaching of the 
Man of Nazareth 
and Galilee plows its 
way through mental 
rubbish that is piled 
centuries high. The 
light of the eternal 
day breaks in upon 

longing hearts in A Corner on the Bound Stock Floor. 

o o tures leaves the Bible House on an 

"R 1 n O" 1 PI Tl fl in CtPT- seconds, day and night, all the year round 

many, in Switzerland, and the gospel enters upon its 
civilizing, liberating, and elevating work that is to reach 
"every nation" in "all the world." Bible societies spring 
up, and millions of copies of the sacred volume are 
speedily prepared. The poor seeker after divine truth 
need no longer walk twenty-five miles with the careful 
savings of six long years, only to be well-nigh disap- 




A volume of Scrip- 
average every five 



132 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

pointed in securing the valued treasure. No, indeed! 
Missionaries, with their hearts all aflame with love for 
their unfortunate fellow creatures, gather up the stream 
of Bibles that pours from the press, and every corner 
of the world is visited, and the. Book of books is offered, 
yea, urged upon all. 

Carey was not afraid to encounter hardships in car- 
rying the gospel to India; courageous John Williams did 
not hesitate to plant the standard of the cross on the 
cannibal islands of the Pacific; Robert Morrison left his 
friends and native land behind him while he went to 
China, and devoted his life to giving the Scriptures to 
that people in their native tongue ; and Japan, China, and 
Korea, after a hard struggle, in which many devoted 
Christian men and women have lost their lives, have 
opened their doors to receive the word of God. 

And right here let it be noted that there can be no 
greater miracle than for a man to have principles enter 
into his life that cause him to give up every dear asso- 
ciation of home and native land to face the dangers and 
hardships, not to mention the disagreeable associations, 
of dwelling with and working for heathen and barbarous 
peoples. The missionary does not enter the gloom of the 
heathen world for a brief campaign, then to return 
home to enjoy himself for the rest of his days; there is 
not the prospect of coming back to old friends to make 
the remainder of life all the more enjoyable because of 
a brief sojourn in an uncompanionable country, and the 
polish and education incident to the travel. The mis- 
sionary gives up all the associations and prospects that 
the world holds dear. His whole life is a continual, 



THE GOSPEL S PROGRESS 



133 



living sacrifice in giving the gospel of Christ to the 
unenlightened worshiper at the idol's shrine. 

There is a wonderful power that takes hold of men 
and women thus to lead them to place their whole lives 
upon the altar. Our God's prophetic powers enabled 
Him to look down the ages and see these consecrated 
workers zealously doing their chosen work. He was 




of Scriptures in the warehouse, London, ready for shipment. Nine tons 
of Scriptures have been despatched from the Bible House in one day. 

able to see, for centuries in advance, the men and women 
who would gladly receive the same spirit that led the 
Lord Jesus to leave His home of unmarred bliss to come 
to this world of sin to rescue all that could be persuaded 
to accept Him. 

It was the vision of this army of courageous, intel- 
ligent, God-fearing missionaries which, marching before 




134 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

the prophet's view, enabled him to foretell that "many 
would seek out the sense" of the word of God, and 
thereby would knowledge be fanned into a blazing fire 
of glory, "in the time of the end." It was while His 
prophetic attributes were trained upon His missionary 
hosts, that the Son of God, surrounded by a few fisher- 
men and other unpretentious followers, 
could say with such positive certainty, 
"This gospel of the kingdom shall be 
preached in all the world." The stu- 
pendous fulfilment of the divinely 
prophetic forecast forms a lofty monu- 
ment of evidence. This evidence will 
stamp the pale blush of despair and 
William Carey. Bom at shame on every f ace that is so hardened 

Paulerspury, Northampton- . , . . . . . 

shire 1761; died at the age that it can turn away with persistent 

of 73, June 7, 1834. Early «/ J- 

L e K ch sc r hoo i f by he day° 8 fnd deafness from the voice of God, that is 

cobbling shoes at night. De- . . . n j_ i -n tt' j_i 

voted his life to missions to inviting all to share with Him the 

heathendom. Hismotto: . 

Go^tUprJreat'Sgs 1 ^ priceless joys of eternity, and is also 
Satast ri'f Cat oT oppoS: sounding the deep trumpet tones of 

tion, hardship, and trial, was . n . , . 

greatly Wessed of God. He warning in this generation. 

brought out the Bible in ° ° 

floT'and 2£,i3SSTi ft This opening of the doors of prog- 
XufnaMgu^W ress to receive the gospel light is not con- 

lects, rendering the Bible ac- _ . i j t i i_ i n 

cessibie to more than three fined to what have been termed the more 

hundred million of human 

bein ^ s - benighted heathen lands of the distant 

Orient ; but the countries of Europe and western Asia that 
have refused to discuss matters of religion with the rest of 
the world, and that have shut away the missionaries who 
came to bring them light and truth, have one after an- 
other been opening their doors. Even Eussia, that has 
been generally considered one of the most despotic and 
intolerant powers, has bowed her head before the in- 




the gospel's progress 135 

fluences with which heaven is flooding the world; and 
the Czar, thus moved, has, by his ukase of religious 
toleration, and also by the greater liberties granted the 
press, nominally conceded to his subjects the right to 
follow the dictates of conscience in worshiping God. Even 
Tibet is required to come forth from her stubborn se- 
clusion, so that her inhabitants may 
enjoy their right to the divine invita- 
tion to join the throng that will soon 
be brought into the joys of heaven. 
Thus nation after nation, island after 
island, have been entered, until nearly 
the whole world has the Scriptures of 
truth. The separating and hindering 
walls of religious despotism are being Tr ?rof R co^nwX' ^° g w! 
overthrown, and the King whose mighty liVat the 81 eariy ed a g e e if si: 

1 _ n . ti n -^- e designed to fit himself for 

scepter touches every world m all the the law, but the influence of 

J- <> William Carey in India, and 

universe, is leveling the way so that m ^ n a^ d Ameri^ d S 

Tt' j_ ' tt 1 him to devote himself to the 

His great commission can speedily and work of the christian mis- 

. sionary. His short life was 

surely meet its fulfilment m an accom- ™f Transiat d ed at th? le New 
plished work. "This gospel of the king- shs&tL 1 j2L£z 

-, , . .-,-. -, -, . -. . nii sic. He died at Tokat among 

dom' will soon be proclaimed m all the strangers. hi s New Testa- 

x ment is used by many mil- 

earth, and "then shall the end come. lions of p e °p ]e - 

It is not mere haphazard, random talk, to make the 
statement that "this gospel of the kingdom " is now being 
preached in all the world by a great army of devoted 
soldiers of the cross. The Spirit of the great Missionary 
Himself has become triumphant in this generation. There 
is not a nation where the gospel message is not being 
strongly and clearly sounded to-day. The great mission- 
ary war-cry of this time is, "The gospel to all the world 
in this generation." It is simply marvelous to note the 



136 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 




increasing army of young men and women who are being 
literally taken possession of by the conviction that they 
must devote themselves without reserve 
to the work of carrying the knowledge 
of Christ and His coming into every 
neighborhood in every nation in all the 
world. 

And do not lose sight of the fact 
that "this gospel of the kingdom shall 
be preached in all the world for a wit- 
ef^S^jS^ 3 ^ ness unto all nations." The prophecy 
?ame 17 a 83 pre d acher 18 in 6 'i822; does not say that the nations will all 

was consecrated bishop of . 

Calcutta in 1823. He la- be converted. There is no definite prom- 

bored with great zeal in In- J- 

his hymis r which ar wiii A ™e°vef ise concerning the number of converts 

grow old are, "From Green- . , -i r> • n t^ in • ii n 

land's icy Mountains," and to the faith. But there is the clear 

"Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God . 

Almighty.- word of God for it that the gospel shall 

be preached with power in all the world "for a witness." 
The witnessing of the gospel in all the world by self- 
sacrificing missionaries is what the 
prophecy calls for. Of course there 
will be conversions, and the converts 
will join in swelling the proclamation 
of the witnessing message. But any 
specified number of converts is not re- 
quired to fulfil the prophecy. It is the 
witnessing work that we are to see. BE1 , 5< , , 

Do we hear it said that it is just by ^grSSuSSSSSdT* ISS= 

• -i i-i i ,-■ i'±i i land, died in China, Aug. 1, 

coincidence that the present is the great i834. He early decided to 

become a missionary to the 

time of missionary activity; that it is K h ^ s £VTt£ e w 
the great time of Bible societies; that &™S on S £2 t£ 

... ., ii' en • j_' pioneer of Protestant mis- 

it IS the great time 01 the printing- sionaries in China. Trans- 
° a o lated the Scriptures and pre- 

press, so that these Bible societies could f e re was iS h chiL d 27 tio y n eaS: 




THE GOSPEL 'S PROGRESS 



137 




have the sacred book in inexhaustible quantities; that 

it is the great time of the railroad, so that missionaries 
can visit every family in every country 
place, hamlet, village, and city; that it 
is the great time of the steamship, so 
that every outlying habitable island is 
reached; that it is the great time of the 
electric telegraph; also that it is the 
time of every other one of the multi- 
plied wonders of this marvelous age? 
Well, it may be best to acknowledge 
that this is indeed a coincidence; but 
back of all this stupendous array of 
coincidences there is the manifest work- 
ing of the all-powerful hand of Di- 
vinity. Stop! Look around you! Is 
it not evident that 
"this gosjoel of the 
kingdom" is doing its 

final witnessing in "all the world"? Is 

there not a prodigious "increase of 

knowledge," so vast in its proportions 

that even our quickened imaginations 

can scarcely comprehend it? These 

are some among the many heralds of ^f™ 1 ™* ^ a s d? i-d fi ' s S e * 

the breaking morn. 

Take time to think of it. The or 

ganized Bible societies alone have cir 

culated about three hundred million ^ to *^Jffi^ 

p n t-»«i i • J.1 to his wants, continuing this 

COBieS 01 tlie Bible Since tlieir Orgaill- for a year and a half, walk- 

- 1 - . ing miles in feeble health in 

zation, and they are now circulating Z^Z^tytVLS 
the divine book at the rate of over £ r th a e " me wi,h a babe in 



Adoniram Judson. Born in 
Maiden, Mass., Aug. 9, 1788, 
died at sea, April 12, 1850. 
A most devoted "man from 
his youth, one of the first 
missionaries that the Ameri- 
can Board sent out, but af- 
terward became a Baptist, 
and was the pioneer mission- 
ary in Burma. He and his 
wife suffered fearful hard- 
ships during the years 1824- 
26 during the war between 
England and Burma. Trans- 
lated the Bible in Burmese. 
For a long time there seemed 
to be no fruits to his efforts, 
but in 1838 there were said 
to be a thousand converts 
from heathendom formed into 
churches. 




Ann Hasseltine Judson, 



Dec. 22, 1789, and died Oct, 
24, 1826, in the thirty-sev- 
enth year of her age. Never 
physically strong, she labored 
almost incessantly. While her 
husband was in prison, she 
was called to share his suf- 



138 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



ten and one fourth million copies a year. They have 
translated it into more than 525 languages and dialects; 
and, too, it should be stated that this does not include 
the large number of Bibles that have been printed and 
scattered by private firms. Surely these figures are sig- 
nificant in themselves alone. But when seen in the light 
of God's prophetic word, they speak in no uncertain 

language. 

" For the word of 
God is quick [living 
and active] and pow- 
erful, and sharper 
than any two-edged 
sword, piercing even 
to the dividing asun- 
der of 'soul and 
spirit, and of the 
joints and marrow, 
and is a discerner 
of the thoughts and 
intents of the heart. ' ' 
Heb. 4:12. 

" Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of in- 
corruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth 
forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of 
man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the 
flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord 
endureth forever. And this is the word which by the 
gospel is preached unto you." 1 Peter 1:23-25. "For 
My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways 
My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher 
than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, 




Bible cart, Japan. 



THE GOSPEL'S PROGRESS 139 

and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain 
cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth 
not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring 
forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and 
bread to the eater: so shall My word be that goeth forth 
out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but 
it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall pros- 
per in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out 
with joy, and be led forth with peace : the mountains and 
the hills shall break forth before r *-?*\± -. 
you into singing, and all the §Jr%^i 
trees of the field 
shall clap their 
hands. Instead of 
the thorn shall come 
up the fir-tree, and 
instead of the brier 
shall come up the myrtle- 
tree: and it shall be to the 
Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not 
be cut off." Isa. 55:8-13. 

Such is the language of our heavenly Father's decree. 
His word shall not return unto Him void. And just so 
surely as this is the decree of the Omnipotent One, so 
sure may we be that the present scattering of the Bible 
throughout the world is the seed-sowing of the " gospel 
of the kingdom. ' ' This work of sowing is now well along. 
The Master says when it is finished, "then shall the end 
come. 7 ' He has told us, "The harvest is the end of the 
world." Matt. 13: 39. What a glorious end that will be! 
It is not the end of joy, but the end of misery, and woe, 
and despair, and sin; and, while it is the end of all these 




Bible boat, Siam. 



140 



HEKALDS OF THE MOENING 



undesirable things, it is also the beginning of the undis- 
turbed bliss of that happy life the confines of which are* 
the farther shores of eternity. What good news this is! 
Join in the chorus, and swell the song until every listen- 
ing ear and every waiting heart is reached. 





CHAPTER FOURTEEN 




HE prophetic word is explicit in telling us of the 
increase of knowledge" at "the time of the end"; 
it also tells us of the closing triumphs of the gospel 
as it is "preached in all the world for a witness unto all 
nations." There is a wonderful weight of evidence in 
these two predictions alone; but still further and more 
minute particulars are presented in the inspired Book. 
It is not by disconnected and meager evidence that we 
are shown that the great day of the Lord is near; but 
one after another the striking characteristics of the "last 
days" are pointed out. All may see these things and 
thus "know," if they so desire, when He is near. 

It seems wonderful that God should have told hun- 
dreds of years ago just what many of the people would 
be saying in the last days; but such is the truth. Upon 
this point carefully read the following scripture: 

"And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the 
mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the 
top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills ; 
and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people 

141 



142 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 




shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the moun- 
tain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and 
He will teach us of His ways, and we 
will walk in His paths : for out of Zion 
shall go forth the law, and the word 
of the Lord from Jerusalem. And 
He shall judge among the nations, and 
shall rebuke many people: and they 
shall beat their swords into plowshares, 
and their spears into pruning-hooks : 
S ec^nd Y daughter A ™ LT Arch* nation shall not lift up sword against 

bishop Whately, born at . • .j-i t n j_1 1 

Haiesworth, England, died nation, neither shall they learn war 

March 9, 1889. She was ^ 

given the highest education, an y more. O house oi Jacob, come ye, 

mental, moral, and religious; *> ' •/ 7 

ZZ^t^lSltlm^] and let us walk in the light of the 

early gave herself to the serv- T -i , , -r- o O cr 

ice of Christ. Her greatest Lord. lSa. 2:2-5. 

work was done in Egypt for . . 

neglected Moslem giris. The first sentence m this scripture 

tells very plainly when the prophecy will be fulfilled. 
We are informed of what "shall come to pass in the 
last days." Now observe particularly that "many people 
shall go and say" certain things. Do not make the mis- 
take of supposing that God says these 
things; for He does not. The Lord is 
simply telling us in advance what 
"many people shall go and say" "in 
the last days." 

The reader will observe that these 
people say, "Come ye, and let us go 
up to the mountain of the Lord, to 
the house of the God of Jacob; and oS^^SS^ST^ 

t--,- .-, n , ■, n -r-r« t 26. 1799. He is noted as the 

He Will teaCh US 01 HlS WayS, and We first Protestant missionary to 

^ 7 Abyssinia under the Church 

will walk in His paths: for out of Zion Kf^&i^S'Si 
shall go forth the law, and the word JSJS.'Sy i?\£lt in 




WHAT MANY PEOPLE SHALL SAY 



143 




Robert Moffat. Born at 



of the Lord from Jerusalem." These words are spoken 
by professors of religion. They talk of going to the 
house of God, and of being taught of 
His ways. 

Continuing, these " people" say fur- 
ther of the Lord that "He shall judge 
among the nations, and shall rebuke 
many people: and they shall beat their 
swords into plowshares, and their spears 
into pruning-hooks : nation shall not 
fi^SS^J^^ U P sword against nation, neither 
i n 883 di at d th1 a L g e i g h f & g H?i shall they learn war any more." The 

mother saturated him while -r -1-1 . . -.-, . , . . .. . 

young with a knowledge of .Lord does not tell us that these things 

the Bible and stories of the ° 

?L rIy ea" y r8 ate n o'( r T9 re he £ that "many people shall go and say," 
w&2£1U2**2?2SZ are the truth. He simply tells us that 

sionary, and was accepted, 1-1 • -,-! ,-, -, n , . .. 

sailing for South Africa in they will say them, and also when they 

1816. His chief service lay " 7 J 

in the region of Bechuana- will Q£1V tllPTYl 

land, the Orange River coun- VV1±1 0c V L11C111. 

try. Most noted of his TJ- a l nrkWC < -Fhrj-f- flno 

achievements was the trans- J-« DllU W o tlldt L11C 

lation of the entire Bible into -, -, -*-. , ^ 

Bechuana. heavenly Father can 

read the future perfectly when He tells 
twenty-five hundred years or more in 
advance even the sayings of the people 
in the last days. And this prophecy 
of Isaiah is repeated almost word for 
word by the prophet Micah in the 
fourth chapter of his book, thus show- 
ing that God revealed these same things 
to more than one of His prophets. 

Having learned in the foregoing 
paragraphs what the Lord tells us the 
people will be saying in the last days, 
and having produced some evidence in 




John Williams, the noted 
missionary to the South Sea 
Islands, was born at Totten- 
ham, England, June 29, 
1796, and died at Erro- 
manga, Nov. 20, 1839. He 
was sent out by the London 
Missionary Society at the age 
of 20 to the South Sea Is- 
lands. Savage and supersti- 
tious as the natives were, 
they seemed to be waiting for 
the gospel. He translated the 
New Testament into the lan- 
guage of Raiatea and Rara- 
tonga. He was killed at Er- 
romanga, by savages who did 
not know him. 




144 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

previous chapters to show that the last days are already 
reached, we proceed to look around us to ascertain if 
''many people" are even now saying these things as pre- 
dicted by the prophets Isaiah and Micah. 

To some extent a few men at different times in the 
past have taught that a universal reign of peace and 
righteousness would prevail on the earth in its present 
state, and that Christ would come in 
person to rule over a converted world. 
But we wait for the arrival of the 
present generation before this doctrine 
becomes a characteristic belief of "many 
people." To-day you will hear men 
eloquently teaching that the age in 
which we live is the beginning of the 

David Livingstone, the , .,, . tj-itj t -i 

noted African explorer and great millennium. In the literal words 

missionary, was born in ° 

f^!7^ s i£iitA™i of the prophet, they are saying that a 
Say ] i?"i873, on at the a'gToi universal peace will make swords and 

60. At 19 he resolved to be 1 . , , . , . 

a medical missionary, and spears no longer a necessitv, and that 

was called in 1838 by the x ° " 7 

His d ?rithf^ these will be beaten into plowshares and 

riS5 lo^eyiThe^ait praning-hooks. They are actually say- 

at Zanzibar, one of the most . , ,-, -i i -in 

heroic journeys ever under- Hlg, lUSt aS tlie prOplietS Said they 
taken. His remains now rest . J 

in Westminster Abbey. would, JN ation shall not liit up sword 
against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." 
When the second coming of Christ is mentioned as being 
very near, the readiest and most popular objection is 
that "the millennium must come first, and all the world 
be led through the highways of peace into the blissful 
state of universal righteousness." 

How literally are these teachers fulfilling the word 
of God! Instead of their teaching being an evidence 
that a time has come when peace is to reign over all, and 




WHAT MANY PEOPLE SHALL SAY 145 

" nation shall not lift up sword against nation," it is 
one of the unmistakable tokens of the days in which we 
live; for are not these "many people' ' even now saying 
just what the all-wise Father said they would be saying 
when the end of time is at hand? 

There can be no question but that thousands of those 
who have fallen into the snare, and are joining in these 
"last-day" sayings of the "many peo- 
ple," have taken up the delusion unwit- 
tingly, believing that it is the teaching 
of God's word. But God's prophetic 
truth in regard to the condition of the 
world in the last days is the exact op- 
posite of what the people in large num- 
bers will be saying. How many are the 
errors and fatal deceptions from which . J ? HN °- pattern, the 

-L missionary preacher and 

men might be kept if they would only CTin LSri%^l 
study the Bible with care! It should g ^ hT^lTJi 
not be read superficially and occasion- hi! u m5ther waf hS a h niece ds of 

,',..-, -i-ii i ,1 i Samuel Coleridge the poet. In 

airy, but it should be constantly and 18 . 5 , 5 h *. ? ailed O to , Melanesia 

J 7 J with Bishop Selwyn. He 

closely studied; for as we study the aS^.fl^Sig 
word faithfully, seeking to know only Sntfy by^isSI, onhk i e a v st 

voyage to the Nakapu Is- 

tiie truth, the heavenly Father sends i^as. 
His spirit to be bur unerring teacher. "Howbeit when 
He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into 
all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but what- 
soever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will 
show you things to come." John 16:13. 

And the very manner in which the word is to be 
studied is particularly pointed out. His direction is, 
"Consider what I say; for the Lord shall give thee un- 
derstanding in all things." 2 Tim. 2:7. When we con- 

10 



146 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



sider just what He says, then He gives us the under- 
standing. By taking a superficial view of the verses 
quoted from the second chapter of 
Isaiah, a person may get the idea that 
plowshares and pruning-hooks are to 
supplant the sword and the spear; but 
if we follow the Lord's direction and 
"consider" what He says, it is plain 
that He is foretelling the words of 
the people. But the words of these 




Griffith John, the boy 
preacher of Wales born at people do not eXpreSS the truth HI re- 
Swansea on the 14th of De- x x x 

richer oftte' go^H? 14* gard to the conditions in the world. 
S fiH, f X r s X gh CS The facts do not authorize the people 

the Hankow Mission. At this , i j -i • a -i • p , . ,-. 

writing he is stiii alive. to say such things. And it we strictly 
follow the words of Jehovah and carefully "consider" 
just what He says, the true condition must be made ap- 
parent to the candid mind. 

With this thought in mind of con- 
sidering just what the Lord says, let 
us return to the second chapter of 
Isaiah. The reader is requested to 
give thoughtful attention to the words 
immediately following what the "many 
people" shall be saying. The Lord's 
words are: 

"Therefore Thou hast forsaken Thy ar *°™ £ e ^Z\uSS, 
people the house of Jacob, because they the 8 south 3 fcSw° V£ 

1 n ... i 'rttmt -t 'in j n nrst experience in missions 

be replenished tilled with customs, ™ ™ city mission work m 

- 1 - u ' Glasgow, where he met with 

A. E. V.] from the east, and are sooth- ^£{^^f |^^ 
sayers like the Philistines, and they St ssl0 A?tS a a mo thSe th the ro bur- 

._ n . r ,. . ., - .. den of foreign mission work 

please themselves m 'strike hands rest ed upon him, and he was 

r L sent to the New Hebrides by 

with," E. V.] the children of strangers. ch e nrc R h ef Tsfotia P n r d e . sbyterian 




WHAT MANY PEOPLE SHALL SAY 



147 




Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there 
any end of their treasures; their land is also full of 
horses, neither is there any end of their 
chariots: their land also is full of idols; 
they worship the work of their own 
hands, that which their own fingers 
have made: and the mean man boweth 
down, and the great man humbleth 
himself: therefore forgive them not. 
" Enter into the rock, and hide thee 

John Wilson, M.D., one . n -, . « P pj-iti t 

of the early missionaries to in the dust, for fear oi the Lord, and 

India, was born in Berwick- „.,,„-,-.. 

fsol' di c e°d tla S d ec T' i 8 }l' for tne g lol T of Hls majesty. The lofty 
Kiy^XhL of to Ae dS looks of man shall be humbled, and 

himself to foreign fields. In inn i j • p i ii i i t 

1828 was sent by the Scot- the haughtiness of men shall be bowed 

tish Missionary Society to 

Bombay, where he spent i4 down, and the Lord alone shall be ex- 

years translating literature 7 

and working for souis. alted in tliat day. For the day of the 
Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and 
lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall 
be brought low: and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that 
are high and lifted up, and upon all 
the oaks of Bashan, and upon all the 
high mountains, and upon all the hills 
that are lifted up, and upon every high 
tower, and upon every fenced wall, and 
upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon 
all pleasant pictures. And the lofti- 
ness of man shall be bowed down, and 
the haughtiness of men shall be made john Wilkinson, for 

.. -ijT t ii -i -i-i i fifty-six years a missionary 

low: and the Lord alone shall be ex- to the Jews, beginning his 

work in 1851 in London. 

alted in that day. And the idols He g. *»* w^ go^- 
shall utterly abolish. And they shall ;«£.>*; STLSSTt. * 
go into the holes of the rocks, and into ; h T e 1,e Gen J S." flrst • afte ™ rd 





148 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for 
the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake ter- 
ribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols 
of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each 
one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; 
to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of 
the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory 
of His majesty, when He ariseth to 
shake terribly the earth. Cease ye from 
man, whose breath is in his nostrils: 
for wherein is he to be accounted of?" 
Isa. 2 : 6-22. 

Particular and careful study should 
be given to every one of these specifi- 
cations. The thought of the reader will, 
Apti EX 2 A 6 NDE i R 8o? ur in PeSE however, be directed here to only a few 
Sh ! s ±oSshiri, e En1iani; of the remarkable utterances of Him 

Feb. 12, 1878. Was sent out n .-. -in n -i 

as the first missionary of the who sees the end from the beginning. 

Church of Scotland to India ° ° 

SaS'!»di h a e a 1 fer of eigt ''Therefore Thou hast forsaken Thy 
T Sa fo? X s eluca,ron o f people the house of Jacob;" "they 

the native youth, one of the -, ,-, -. • ji -i»-it t* 

principles of which was that please themselves in the children of 

the Scriptures should be read x . . 

in every class. The first strangers ; their -land also is full oi 

school opened m 1830 under » 7 

a banyan-tree. silver and gold, neither is there any 

end of their treasures;" " their land also is full of idols; 
they worship the work of their own hands. ' ' These words 
express God's estimate of the generation when "many" 
shall say that the time of universal peace and righteous- 
ness has come. How different is the picture presented 
by the unerring One from that which "many people" 
would fain have us believe! 

Notice, further, what God says of the people in this 
time: "The mean man boweth down, and the great man 




WHAT MANY PEOPLE SHALL SAY 149 

liumbleth himself: therefore forgive them not." Even 
"the great man liumbleth himself." When statistics are 
considered, there is an immense array of the vast num- 
ber who are enrolled as the followers of Christ. But 
God's word shows that this outward appearance is only 
a sham. The pure, unselfish character of Christ is left 
out of the lives of the greater part of this multitude of 
world-loving professors. It is the word 
of God that presents these clearly de- 
fined facts, and the reader's own ob- 
servation presses the conviction home 
upon the soul and conscience that God 
is true, and the "many people" to the 
contrary are wrong. 

The Father in heaven will be driven 

i in i -j_ a • ••• t J. Hudson Taylor, found- 

to the extremity of visiting dire pun- er of the china inland mi s - 

. . . sion, went to China as a mis- 

lSliment UpOn thlS baSe llVpOCriSV. sionary in 1853 under the 

x " x ** Chinese Evangelization So- 

"The great man" who "liumbleth him- + ciet j- , A f ™^L sepa ?™ on 

O took place m 1860, and Mr. 

self" in his deceitful pretensions of £ a £ r F *S ed *£**$££ 
piety, and who, by lending his wide in- woSs^l^ng'no 1 ^^ 

(-. . . , -, -, -. teed salary, but trusting in 

nuence to the wrong, has led many the Lord to su PP i y their 

# needs. No personal solicita- 

more into the ways of error, will be tkm or collection of funds is 

•> made or authorized by the 

overwhelmed beyond the powers of de- missionaries - 
scription by the waves of remorse that will break in upon 
his distressed and ruined soul. The best interests of 
these sinners themselves will not permit the Lord to allow 
them to continue in their evil course. There comes a 
time when divine forbearance no longer leads men to re- 
nounce the evil and turn into the pathway of righteous- 
ness, and then God must of necessity arise to put an 
end to the devouring plague of sin. 



150 



HERALDS OP THE MOKNING 




Kongo under the 

Missionary Society, was born -, , . , , ( , 

in Camherwell, London, in alteO. 111 that daV 

1852. He began his mission 



Read again the warnings to these "many people" who 
in "the last days" shall be teaching "peace and safety" 
to the world, when their voices should 
be sounding the trumpet notes of truth. 
God says: 

"Enter into the rock, and hide thee 

in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and 

for the glory of His majesty. The lofty 

looks of man shall be humbled, and the 

c haughtiness of men shall be bowed 

r IJi down, and the Lord alone shall be ex- 

For the day of the 
ary "Work "with children "in Lord of hosts shall be upon every one 

1874, and was sent by the J- •/ 

AfYi t caSn li f8?6\ a ?ate S r°lx t p y io^ that is proud and lofty, and upon every 
ha?d th ^a^o? so a c n ( d nt Scrific 1 e one that is lifted up; and he shall be 

brought his life to an end at i j_ i a -i j-i • i i T t 

the early age of 34 years. brOUgllt lOW. . . . And the idols He 

shall utterly abolish. And they shall go into the holes 
of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear 
of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when 
He ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a 
man shall cast his idols of silver, and 
his idols of gold, which they made each 
one for himself to worship, to the moles 
and to the bats; to go into the clefts of 
the rocks, and into the tops of the 
ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and 
for the glory of His majesty, when 
He ariseth to shake terribly the earth." 

Tqq 9 • 10 91 William Duncan, the 

_Lfed. & . J-U-Z/J.. noted missionary worker 

-r-r t t t i«m t among the Tsimshian In- 

How clearly and graphically does dians of Alaska. He founded 

. ^ « // i the mission in 1862 among 

this bring us face to face with "the In .? ia + ?? noto /i fi L e Z! 

o evil thing. In a snort time 

day of the Lord of hosts"! The scenes ^SdU.tffiJ «&.""- 




WHAT MANY PEOPLE SHALL SAY 



151 




of that great day are vividly depicted. It is stated that 
men will then cast away their " idols of silver" and " idols 
of gold, ... to go into the clefts 
of the rocks, and into the tops of the 
ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and 
for the glory of His majesty, when He 
ariseth to shake terribly the earth." 

God's message to those living in 
"the last days" is surely very different 
from the doctrine of the conversion of 
Alexander m. mackay the whole world and a universal peace. 

was born at Rhyme, Aber- *r 

iSSHiS fon'K SJer But bear in mind that for more than 
?Lra e of^ageTe'reaV t£ twenty-five hundred years the heavenly 

New Testament; at seven, ' jit n -i-ir»ji 

" M i lt ?.?, , 5, v p f ra S se v Lost '!,' -rather has been telling the world of the 

and Gibbon s Decline and O 

wtsU'by^^hS 1 ^ delusive teachings of this time. All 
r87T y anr i reached A u 1 ga a nda about us to-day is the multitude whose 

in 1878. He died Feb. 8, " . i t» i 

i89o. very words are a strikingly literal ful- 

filment of this remarkable prophecy. The Lord has 
taken pains to tell us these things in advance. He not 
only wants us to know when we are 
near the end of time, but He seeks to 
shield us from falling into the snare 
of following the "many people" rather 
than the word of God. 

"Concerning the times and the sea- 
sons, brethren, ye have no need that 
aught be written unto you. For your- 
selves know perfectly that the day of io AfrZlfeJ^Z^V- 
the Lord so cometh as a thief in the S ,r&el ] ™e g \™Z 

. -ttt-t n T-k tne Indians of the North- 

night. When they are saying, _reace west, where he began his 

O J J ° 7 labors in 1868. That work 

and safety, then sudden destruction t e v J e ^T^ t £ e s ^ e 

it ji j_ *i word. Mr. Young is still 

cometh upon them, as travail upon a laboring in his neid. 





152 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

woman with child; and they shall in nowise escape. But 
ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should 
overtake you as a thief: for ye are all sons of light, and 
sons of the day: we are not of the night, nor of dark- 
ness; so then let us not sleep, as do the rest, but let us 
watch and be sober." 1 Thess. 5:1-6. 

The foregoing verses are quoted elsewhere, and the 
fact is mentioned that they bring to 
view two classes of people. There is 
one class whom the apostle calls his 
brethren, and who are standing in the 
light, and so "the day of the Lord" 
does not steal upon them "as a thief 
in the night." The other class are those 
who are standing in darkness, and hence 
Samuel adjai crowther, the great day comes upon them as a 

a native of the Yoruba coun- ° ^ *- 

try, Africa. He was rescued -fTiick-f 
from slavery in boyhood. ^ XAiCJ -« 

Ste 'NerTeSamt.T.Jd Observe also that those who are thus 

in five years was a tutor in . . . 

Fourah College in 1864 he standing in darkness, are saying, Peace 

was consecrated Bishop of ° ' <* ° 7 

^^SI^\t^tZ and safety." God said nearly two thou- 
fo e ?d conferred er on ty hmi ?£ sand years ago that they would be 

degree of Doctor of Divinity. . „ .. . ,_,, , . ,, 

He died Dec. 31, 1891. "saying this. The reader need have 
no difficulty in seeing that God foretold a definite truth 
when He made this prediction. 

It is a most marvelous thing that in the providence 
of God nearly the whole w T orld to-day has His word 
to read. It is also a marvel that so many who profess 
to believe that word do not study it sufficiently to un- 
derstand its teaching, and thus be saved from the decep- 
tive doctrines against which such faithful warnings are 
given. There is, perhaps, no one thing that is more 
generally believed than that the world is to reach a 




WHAT MANY PEOPLE SHALL SAY 153 

time when every nation will be resting in a settled and 
abiding peace ; and it is an equally wide-spread notion that 
during this all-pervading peace every sinner will be con- 
verted to God. But if men would only read and believe 
the Bible, they would find that these sayings of the 
people are false. Instead of their leading us to look for 
good times in this life, we should see in them one of 
the striking signs that the day is at 
hand for the great and final destruc- 
tion of sin, with which this world is 
deluged. For "when they are saying, 
Peace and safety, then sudden destruc- 
tion cometh upon them." Every one 
of the senses is impressed with the 
awfully increasing crime and wicked- 

. James Chalmers. Born, 

ness that are devastating our once fair i 84 /, at Ardrishaig, seot- 

O land. At a Presbyterian Sun- 

earth; and the gathering of the great- {jf^X "tef S 

j • n • it j ii i l to the service of the Lord. 

est armies and navies that the world January, lsee, he and his 

... young wife entered Rara- 

has ever dreamed of is no indication tonga, in is?? he went to 

New Guinea. In 1882 he 
nf a Wnrlrl-Wirlp TkP3r>P wrote, "For over two years 

U± d WUliU WlUt; jjedLe. there have been no cannibal 

At -it n ,-i -x ir i •" n ovens, no feasts, no human 

single parable 01 the Master is sut- flesh, no desire for skuiis." 

. -iiT -ii t i He was at last murdered by 

licient, ii read and believed, to dispel a hostile tribe A P ril 8 > 1901 - 
completely this delusion of a universal peace and the 
world's conversion. The parable reads thus: 

"The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which 
sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his 
enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and 
went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and 
brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So 
the servants of the householder came and said unto him, 
Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from 
whence then hath it tares ? He said unto them, An enemy 



154 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou 
then that we go and gather them up? But he said, 
Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also 
the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the 
harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the 
reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind 
them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into 
my barn." Matt. 13:24-30. 

There need be no mistaking the les- 
son that this parable is designed to 
teach; for the Lord Himself interprets 
it in the following explicit words: 

"His disciples came unto Him, say- 
ing, Declare unto us the parable of 
the tares of the field. He answered 
and said unto them, He that soweth 
z^ oh m.i? n bS ^f c yS the good seed is the Son of man ; the 
r8To h 'of E sfit?h'a^d u we?s 5 h field is the world; the good seed are 

parentage. Went to China in... -i«-it pjt t • t -ijji 

1878 as medical missionary the children of the knimom ; but the 

of the London Missionary ° 7 

iddef'W ?? H™ g Chang tares are the children of the wicked 
^r m lt gr who st ga e v s e ma i n a rg a e"i one; the enemy that sowed them is 

to the building of a hospital. , n -i«i n i j • ji ^ ^ 

He died April i, 1888. the devil ; the harvest is the end 01 
the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore 
the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall 
it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall 
send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His 
kingdom all things that offend, and them which do 
iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: 
there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall 
the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of 
their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." 
Matt. 13:36-43. 





WHAT MANY PEOPLE SHALL SAY 155 

Any one may understand this divine explanation of 
the parable. The wheat represents the good, and the 
tares the bad; both are to groiv together till the harvest; 
and the harvest is the end of the world. Those who 
give heed to these words of Christ, will have no room 
in their minds for a belief of the error, even though 
"many people" proclaim it, that this 
whole rebellious, wicked world shall 
nestle in the folds of peace, while ar- 
rogant and defiant sin makes a volun- 
tary and unconditional surrender. 

But, notwithstanding the plain 
evidence to the contrary, there will 
still be many who will continue to 
chant the fatal error. The thing for Not£d R ln R hei D ' work a™5 

. t-»-i i the lepers, and especially for 

you and me is to believe the Bible, and ft e + hei ;?, is + m h \ de, £l tin f*r her 

J life to that work. The Worn- 

seek to lead as many as possible from SS tr ei fn iSfS TmS- 

• i_i« in n -|-|-ii sionary to Cawnpore, India. 

mistaking the savings of a deluded peo- in i89o, her health being 

. ^n a j ;i seriously undermined, she re- 

ple for the voice of the God of truth, tv * ne * t0 + America. . portly 

J- after that she found herself 

The apostle Peter also tells of some ygggSZ^giSl 

n i-i • ii j ji -i -in 1 decided that her future work 

other things that the people will be i ay among that afflicted peo - 

pie. Desiring to spare her 

saving m the last days. His words t amil y * h % p ain ^ e * ad 

«/ O «/ knowledge would have 

q V a r, Q -PnllrkWQ • brought them, she denied 

ct-LC do ±UllUV\o. herself even a good-by kiss, 

ii-ry • i-i • n i ii i n in telling her purpose to no one 

KnOWing thlS first, tliat there Shall except her sister. She labors 

° under the direction of the 

come in the last days scoffers, walking ^ et pSragC c ea?terS hu KS 
after their own lusts, and saying, Where maun - 
is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell 
asleep, all things continue as they were from the be- 
ginning of the creation." 2 Peter 3:3, 4. 

The signs by which the heavenly Father designs that 
we may "knoiv" when the end of time is at hand are 
appearing all around us. There are some who will see 




156 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

these tokens of the approach of the great day of God, 
and will urge them upon the attention of the people. 
But instead of every one being good and a friend of 
the Messiah, and rejoicing at the thought of His return 
to earth, "there shall come in the last days scoffers, walk- 
ing after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the prom- 
ise of His coming V 

Perhaps these very ones wiio are 
scornfully saying, "Where is the prom- 
ise of His coming?" are professors of 
His name ; for we have seen that Isaiah 
has told us of the "mean man" and 
the "great man" as well who w T ill be 
making their pretentious visits to the 

Pandita Ramabai. In all " ■*■ 

mention of this wonderful house of God, while at the same time 

Indian woman we can find " 

in o?phan f at^eiri'y a|e! they are advocating pernicious errors. 
^dows a S e iSdf a> °bu t t havVng Those who would really follow the Mas- 

a father who believed in edu- _ . 

eating his daughter, and hav- ter, must indeed be on their guard. 

mg talents of natural ability, ~ 

? e a s r\ a n Thf'puSuanc^^f When the scoffer is met, instead of be- 
Sf er the fe wZen o^indil^shf ing discouraged by his derision, try to 

has met much opposition. She , . p _ . -i i j 

has also met many friends, win him irom his errors and lusts. 

She has spent three years m 

irinl^uX^t&Z And .never lose sight of the fact that 
irMpedfrnfCfnl'S: those who cling to their sins and scof- 

ferers have also received re- /-» -, n « ,, ■ -, . -,. . -. 

nef. nngs, regardless 01 all that divine love 

can do for them, serve to make up a part of the monu- 
mental evidence by which we "know" where we are in 
the stream of time. When the scoffer makes the re- 
mark, "Where is the promise of His coming?" do not 
cower before his ridicule nor allow it to disturb you. See 
his remarks in their true light. Recognize in what he 
is saying the unmistakable fulfilment of prophecy right 
in your hearing and before your very eyes; and with all 



WHAT MANY PEOPLE SHALL SAY 157 

the love that is born of the great sacrifice of Christ seek 
to exercise that delicate skill in the use of your words 
and in what you do, by which if possible you may win 
him from the wrong, and turn his face to the great 
blazing light of prophetic truth. 

None but God could be so minute in describing the 
distinguishing characteristics of a particular age; but see 
how definitely His word delineates the many features that 
mark this time. Even things that the people will be say- 
ing are pointed out. What marvelous foreknowledge does 
the Lord possess! 

You have heard the "many people" who are saying 
that " nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither 
shall they learn war any more;" you have heard them 
saying, " Peace and safety;" you have also observed how 
readily, and to what an extent, the scoffer is saying, 
"Where is the promise of His coming?" Nothing seems 
to be a more favorite subject of ridicule with many than 
the coming of the Saviour. You have observed these 
things. Possibly you may be among those who have been 
repeating these prophetic sayings. But did you ever con- 
sider that even these sayings of the people are among 
the unmistakable evidences that mark this time? 





CHAPTER FIFTEEN 




INSTEAD of peace and righteousness filling the 
earth before the coming of the Lord, the Bible evi- 
dence is all to the contrary. We have seen that 
"many people" are teaching the doctrine of a millennium 
of peace and righteousness; but a careful examination of 
God's word is the only means of reaching the truth. Men 
may falsify even when their intentions are good, but the 
word of God makes no mistakes. Hear what it says: 

"As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also 
in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they 
drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, 
until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the 
flood came, and destroyed them all. 

"Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they 
did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, 
they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of 
Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and 
destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day 
when the Son of man is revealed." Luke 17:26-30. 

158 



PREVALENCE OF CRIME A SIGN OF OUR TIMES 



159 




This scripture shows 
that the Saviour has se- 
lected the two most cor- 
rupt periods in the 
world's history as illustra- 
tive of what we are to see 
in the day when the Son 
of man is revealed. ' ' The evil 
condition of the world in "the days 
of Noah" is very clearly set forth 
in another scripture. Of that time 
it is said, "God saw that the wicked- 
ness of man was great in the earth, 
and that every imagination of the 



"The same day that Lot went 
out of Sodom." 



thoughts of his heart was only evil 



continually." Gen. 6:5. 

Then in Noah's time, no matter what the views of 
the people may have been, "God saw that the wicked- 
ness of man was great in the earth." The alarming 
darkness of the picture is shown still more fully by the 
further statement that "every imagination of the thoughts 
of his heart was only evil continually." Such was the 
condition in that time. And when men have sunk to so 
great depths in the pit of degradation that there is in 
the mind no pure and holy desire, when "every imagina- 
tion of the thoughts" of the heart is "only evil" and that 
"continually/' what could be worse? 

If we have been fondly cherishing a contrary view, it 
may not be pleasant at the outset to contemplate these 
facts, but it is always best to be right first and above 
everything else, and in the end it will be seen that the 
way of truth leads to the only real happiness. Then do 



160 



HERALDS OF THE MOENING 



not fail to grasp the fact that the Lord tells us that 
"as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in 
the days of the Son of man." 

But we have not read all that is said of the wicked- 
ness in the days of Noah. It is further stated that "the 
earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was 




"As it was in the days of Noah." 

filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, 
and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted 
his way upon the earth." Gen. 6:11, 12. 

"The earth was filled with violence," and "all flesh 
had corrupted his way upon the earth." Such are the 
expressive utterances of this scripture with reference to 
the condition of society in Noah's time. Because man 



PREVALENCE OF CRIME A SIGN OF OUR TIMES 161 

had become so corrupt, so degraded, so vile, God was 
obliged to destroy the race by the flood. The infinite 
kindness of Infinite Mercy could devise nothing that 
would save that corrupt people. Goodness no longer ap- 
pealed to them. The right, the pure, and the holy was 
only a subject of ridicule and contempt; and if we will 
believe the word of God, we may know that "as it was 
in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of 
the Son of man." 

Every person must carry the conviction, whether he 
will freely acknowledge it or not, that our day and 
generation are as remarkable for their corruption and 
violent crimes as they are for their wonderful inventions 
and material progress. It would be useless to wander 
at length through the maze of statistics in order to show 
the alarming progress that evil is making. All have the 
unmistakable evidence about them continually that 
wickedness in its darkest forms is taking complete pos- 
session of this whole world. As Charles B. Spahr, Ph.D., 
expresses it: 

"Upon matters coming within its field, the common ob- 
servation of common people is more trustworthy than the 
statistical investigations of the most unprejudiced ex- 
perts. Social statistics are only trustworthy when they 
show to the world at large what common observation 
shows to those personally familiar with the conditions 
described." 

Ask yourself the question candidly and seriously, 

"Have I not been alarmed because of the robberies, the 

murders, the drunkenness, the dishonesty, and the many 

other crimes that are seen on every hand?" This is an 

age in which corruption in political and social life is 
11 



162 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

simply appalling. If we look to the rising generation 
for help, we find no relief ; for even our little boys and 
girls in large numbers are becoming expert criminals. 
The facts upon this question are so open that common, 
every-day observation is really all we need to show us 
the true condition of our times. 

Such men as W. Douglas Morrison, who has made a 
careful and exhaustive study of criminals and the causes 
that produce them, with the one thought in mind of 
suggesting remedies by which the evil may be abated, 
testifies that "the amount of crime committed, whether 
by juveniles or adults, is always largely in excess of the 
amount of crime recorded in the most complete and 
elaborate public returns." See "Juvenile Offenders," 
p. 2, D. Appleton & Co. 

The same author, speaking from the view-point of 
"a wide experience of the criminal population," says: 

"One of the formidable problems confronting civilized 
communities ... is the problem of habitual crime. 
It is perfectly well known to every serious student of 
criminal questions, both at home and abroad, that the 
proportion of habitual criminals in the criminal popu- 
lation is steadily on the increase, and was never so high 
as now. In almost every official document dealing with 
penal administration, this unsatisfactory state of things 
is both admitted and deplored." — Id., Preface, p. 5. 

Writing from his office in London, Mr. Morrison says 
further : 

"Whether we look at home or abroad, whether we 
consult the criminal returns of the Old World or the 
New, we invariably find juvenile criminality exhibiting 
a distinct tendency to increase. It is a problem which 



PREVALENCE OF CRIME A SIGN OF OUR TIMES 163 

is not confined to any single community; it is confronting 
the whole family of nations; it is arising out of conditions 
which are common to civilization." — Id., Preface, p. 8. 

Upon the subject of the criminality of our time the 
Catholic Mirror says, editorially: 

" Professor Andrew D. White, who is not given to 
sensational statements, draws attention to the extraordi- 
nary increase of crime throughout the country. That 
there is such an increase, no statistics are needed to 
show; for we have proof of it, such as can scarcely have 
escaped the attention of even careless readers, in the 
daily papers. Shocking occurrences are chronicled — 
murder in all its forms, robbery, felonious assaults, and 
every kind of vicious manifestation.' ' 

The several foregoing quotations are from gentlemen 
who are not only eminent for their education, wide ex- 
perience, and public services, but who are decidedly op- 
timistic in their general views; hence their statements 
would not be overdrawn, and are entitled to the most 
candid consideration. 

Similar statements as strong as the foregoing could be 
quoted at length from numerous other sources, but it is 
unnecessary. The reader's own personal observation en- 
ables him to know that crime is increasing rapidly, and 
has already reached a terrible stage. 

How heart-sickening is the fact, disclosed by the crimi- 
nal records of the day, that even women, young girls, and 
little boys, as well as men, have become so lawless and 
vicious as to commit the darkest crimes, even to auda- 
cious highway robbery and the foulest murder! Any one 
who reads, knows that these records, chronicling, as they 
do, such a variety of crimes, may be found in our daily 



164 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

papers three liimdred and sixty-five days out of every 
year. How clearly and completely are the prophetic 
words of our Saviour thus fulfilled before us! 

Common headings to newspaper reports in these days 
are, "New York Is Having an Epidemic of Crimes," " Chi- 
cago Is Overrun by Criminals;" and similar statements 
are frequently made in regard to many other leading 
cities in the East and the West, in both the Old World 
and the New. And the terrors that this criminal element 
have put into the minds of the people in general enable 
every one to know that the utterances of the daily press 
understate rather than exaggerate the facts. For it must 
be conceded that only a comparatively small proportion 
of the crimes that are committed are ever reported. 

Reader, as you see this constant outbreaking of crime 
all around you, are you not forcibly reminded of the in- 
spired description of Noah's time? "God looked upon 
the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had 
corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto 
Noah, The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the 
earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, 
I will destroy them with the earth. ' ' Gen. 6 : 12, 13. 

In considering these inspired words, do not overlook 
the fact that "as it was in the days of Noah, so shall 
it be also in the days of the Son of man." Luke 17:26. 

The reader may have believed heretofore that the 
world will march on to a great millennium of righteous- 
ness and peace before the Saviour's coming; but still the 
mind must often have been disturbed by the lack of 
harmony between the peace-millennium theory and the 
appalling facts concerning the criminality that, like a ma- 
lignant plague, is breaking out everywhere. Some theo- 



PREVALENCE OF CRIME A SIGN OF OUR TIMES 165 

ries and facts may fail to harmonize; but God's Book 
and the facts will never fail to be in unison. We should 
study the Bible; we should believe it and rely upon it 
fully, for we shall need its perfect light to guide us 
through the perils and amid the darkness of these last 
days. 

There is a great millennium of peace and righteous- 
ness just before the people who will be redeemed from 
the earth. But it will be enjoyed only by those who have 
gained the victory over every besetting sin. It will soon 
be reached. The evidence is clear that shows it. And 
this millennium of peace and righteousness is to be fol- 
lowed by the endless millenniums of eternity, with all 
their indescribable bliss. But the beginning of that rest- 
ful and happy period is honored by the personal pres- 
ence of Christ in His second coming. His coming is the 
one event of all the events of the ages, and it is now 
even at the doors. Every saddened heart and sorrowing 
soul can find perfect comfort in the knowledge of this 
important fact. And every one who is now rejoicing in 
the delights of happiness may find a richer, a deeper, a 
keener, and an ever-abiding joy from learning that the 
sure word of prophecy makes it plain that the personal 
coming of the world's Redeemer is a divinely assured fact 
for the very near future. 




CHAPTER SIXTEEN 




T is a well-known practise for courts to p3rmit 
criminal cases to be delayed by the presentation 
of various technicalities and quibbles, and carried 
from one tribunal to another, until the guilty are finally 
set free without receiving the just and lawful punish- 
ment that their evil deeds deserve. This practise is 
alarmingly on the increase, as the current utterances of 
prominent lawyers, judges, statesmen, and reformers abun- 
dantly testify. But no human language expresses it so 
forcibly as the inspired prophet. Hear what he says: 
"Our transgressions are multiplied before Thee, and 
our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are 
with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them: trans- 
gressing and denying Jehovah, and turning away from 
following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, con- 
ceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. 
And justice is turned away backward, and righteousness 
standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and 
uprightness can not enter. Yea, truth is lacking; and he 
that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey. And 



166 



JUDGMENT IS TURNED AWAY BACKWARD 167 

Jeliovali saw it, and it displeased Him that there was 
no justice. ' ' Isa. 59 : 12-15. 

There have been, since Isaiah uttered this prophecy, 
times and places in which justice was " turned away 
backward," and righteousness stood "afar off," because 
truth had " fallen in the streets," and uprightness could 
not "enter"; but never has it been so literally and gen- 
erally true the world over as to-day. And all these pro- 
phetic utterances concerning the children of Israel in 
the old dispensation, while they had a partial and inci- 
dental fulfilment in those times, are yet especially appli- 
cable in these last days; for, speaking of ancient Israel, 
the apostle says: 

"Now all these things happened unto them for en- 
samples: and they are written for our admonition, upon 
whom the ends of the world are come." 1 Cor. 10:11. 

Then "all these things happened" to the Israel of old 
for "ensamples," and "they are written for our- admoni- 
tion, upon whom the ends of the world are come." God's 
word deals with principles that are universally applicable. 
A thing that is iniquity in one age is the same in another. 
And the sins that call for God's judgments in one age 
will also call forth His just retribution in another. This 
prophecy from Isaiah, when taken with the other scrip- 
tures, is unmistakably pointing into these very last days. 

There is another scripture that it will be well for 
us frequently to study. It says: "Wo to the inhabiters 
of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down 
unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that 
he hath but a short time." Rev. 12: 12. 

Satan profits by all his experience in all the past 
ages in leading men to commit sin and crime. As his 



168 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

time grows shorter and shorter, he becomes more and 
more enraged; and those who do not resist his influence 
by relying upon God and the power of His word are 
taken possession of by his satanic cunning. Thus will 
men be transformed into demons, to do deeds of injustice 
and cruelty that will cause an involuntary shudder from 
all who have not closed their hearts against the tender 
influences of God's merciful Spirit. What will be the 
state of things when to its extreme limit it is true that 
" truth is lacking; and he that departeth from evil maketh 
himself a prey"! 

The reader has doubtless been impressed to some ex- 
tent at least by the lack of justice among men; but how 
many have opened their eyes wide, so that they can see 
the true condition of our world? How does the heart 
grow sad and sick at the contemplation of the enormous 
degree to which " justice is turned away backward, and 
righteousness standeth afar off"! There is danger that 
our fear of being called pessimists may keep us from see- 
ing the actual facts, and giving them their due weight. 

Our cities have passed under the control of the cor- 
rupt and criminal classes. In saying this I am not con- 
fiding to the reader a secret, but am simply stating a 
fact that hundreds of tongues and pens are discussing. 
What to do with the great cities is one of the most dis- 
cussed and perplexing questions of the age. The reason 
for this is that the political "boss" has taken possession 
of the city government, and persistently and effectually 
holds it in the interest of his friends, who subsist upon 
the revenues of vice, drunkenness, fraud, and crime; and 
these friends are immune from punishment through the 
influence of the " political machine." 



JUDGMENT IS TURNED AWAY BACKWARD 169 

The initiative, the referendum, and the recall are 
strongly urged by some of the greatest men of the nation. 
This plan of government is urged in the hope that the 
"boss" and his " machine" may thereby be overthrown 
and the " people" allowed to rule. JWhen the Australian 
ballot system was introduced a number of years ago, many 
affirmed that the "boss" and his "machine" could not 
get around that; but he has managed to hold his control. 
No doubt some of these expedients hinder him for a 
time, but after a little he learns how to make them serve 
his ends, and he goes on, his power being retarded at 
times, but on the whole it is ever increasing. 

Every one knows that the population of the world is 
centering more and more in the cities. And thus the 
mighty masters of corruption who hold the cities are 
enabled to dominate the country at large. For states like 
New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Missouri, and Califor- 
nia, with their immense cities, elect to their respective 
legislatures members from these cities who are able to 
sway the balance of power. And they are not backward 
in using this power to advance their corrupting and 
crime-infected interests. 

It is a source of gratification and thankfulness that 
there are still honorable and honest public men who are 
making heroic efforts to curb and suppress the tides of 
vice that are heaving in upon our world like mighty tidal 
waves. Were it not for the influence of the sterling in- 
tegrity of these men, who can picture what our world 
would now be? But how long can these faithful guard- 
ians of official uprightness hold in check these tides 
of evil? When the last barrier is swept away, and, as in 
the days of Noah, this world, in its private citizens and 



170 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

in its public officials as well, is largely given to evil, a 
merciful and just God can do nothing short of destroy- 
ing the iniquitous peoples of earth. In the past, when 
portions of the world have become irredeemable Sodoms 
of corruption, it has been the invariable course of our 
divine Father to visit them with destruction. And we 
may rest assured that when the whole world reaches like 
depths of wickedness, He will be consistent and follow 
His usual plan; the world will go down in destruction, 
and those only will be saved out of it who have seen the 
evil and stood for righteousness. 

But we are not left to mere reasoning and conjecture 
upon this point. Immediately following the verses above 
quoted from Isaiah, in which he tells of the multiplied 
transgressions, the sins, and the oppressions that lead up 
to the turning awa}^ from justice and righteousness, the 
prophet gives the purpose of the Lord in dealing with 
this gross iniquity. His language is: 

"And Jehovah saw it, and it displeased Him that 
there was no justice. And He saw that there was no 
man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: there- 
fore His own arm brought salvation unto Him ; and His 
righteousness, it upheld Him. And He put on righteous- 
ness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His 
head; and He put on garments of vengeance for cloth- 
ing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle. According to 
their deeds, accordingly He will repay, wrath to His ad- 
versaries, recompense to His enemies; to the islands He 
will repay recompense. So shall they fear the name of 
Jehovah from the west, and His glory from the rising 
of the sun ; for He will come as a rushing stream, which 
the breath of Jehovah driveth. And a Redeemer will 



JUDGMENT IS TURNED AWAY BACKWARD 171 

come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgres- 
sion in Jacob, saith Jehovah." Isa. 59:15-20. 

The foregoing scripture presents a Redeemer to all 
that "turn from transgression"; but those who persist 
in their course of injustice and oppression will be visited 
with the destroying judgments of the Almighty. And 
herein lies the one anchor of hope before the world. For 
if God did not arise to destroy this iniquity and violence, 
there would be such misery brought about as no mortal 
could endure. It is God's mercy, as well as His justice 
and righteousness, that arrests the overwhelming floods 
of sin. 

It is a recognized principle, even among men, that 
crimes and gross wickedness should be adequately pun- 
ished. But the system of injustice that has been built 
up in these days has so paralyzed society that it is both 
indifferent to the situation and incapable of meeting it. 
Hence God has promised to lift His own hand of justice 
to smite down the iniquities of the age, and we may de- 
pend upon it that none of God's promises ever fail. "The 
Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men 
count slackness ; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not will- 
ing that any should perish, but that all should come to 
repentance." 2 Peter 3:9. 

It is only God's lingering mercy and His infinite de- 
sire to save men, that holds back His summary judgments. 
These judgments must soon fall upon the iniquities and 
oppressions that are so apparent. Let the reader turn 
his back upon sentiment and look at the facts as they 
actually exist. 

It is a common belief that money carries with it all 
the influence needed to blind the eyes of justice and de- 



172 HEKALDS OF THE MOKNING 

feat the purpose of properly enacted law. The records 
of legislatures and courts show unmistakably the influence 
of money, both in the enactment of law and in the execu- 
tion of laws already enacted; and if all that the records 
do not show could be revealed, many more immense vol- 
umes would be required to tell the story. But it seems 
to pass without serious contradiction that great combi- 
nations of capital work together to control elections and 
enact laws that suit their purposes; and if some of the 
offenders are brought before the bar, there is a process 
of delays, quibbles, and appeals from one court to an- 
other, until justice is turned away, and evil and oppres- 
sion stalk about in haughty triumph. 

And furthermore, if influences are set in motion to 
bring the manipulators of the colossal financial interests 
to answer at the bar of justice, they have the money of 
the country so largely under their control that, in a day's 
time, they can create a panic, even in times of unprece- 
dented and bounteous plenty. Then it is easy for them 
to start a clamor among business men to have the prose- 
cutions stopped, or materially modified, so that business 
may go on. This clamor makes itself felt by setting aside 
on mere technicality the most righteous judicial sentences, 
and by making it unpopular to prosecute the basest and 
the most debasing and oppressing criminals. And thus 
the influence of concentrated wealth shifts about, first 
one way and then the other, but always finds some means 
by which it can exercise its corrupting and destroying 
devices. Neither justice nor righteousness is in the ques- 
tion before these men. The thing they make their life 
study is how they can get hold of the greatest possible 
amount of wealth, and still keep out of the clutches of 
the law. 



JUDGMENT IS TURNED AWAY BACKWARD 173 

Trusts of various kinds have been familiar topics of 
discussion for a number of decades, but in more recent 
days the " money trust" has loomed up more foreboding 
than any of the rest, and congressional investigations 
abundantly show that it really exists. This is the crown- 
ing act of the powers of greed that puts a few men in 
control of the world, because they hold a " corner" on 
the world's supply of gold. Commerce and business can 
move only in accordance with the liking of these kings 
of finance. Their consent must be obtained before presi- 
dents, emperors, or kings can declare war; and if the 
money power demands it, war must be declared whether 
the rulers desire it or not. The death, the sufferings, and 
the devastations of war are not to be taken into account 
when the men of finance are seized with the desire to 
invest their gold in mortgages on whole nations. 

History affords numerous instances of kingdoms, em- 
pires, and states, that have sunk beneath the degenerating 
influences of wealth and luxury. This fact is too well 
known to make it necessary to cite any of these cases. 
But in past ages the means of intercommunication were 
so meager that while a nation in one portion of the world 
was crumbling to decay and ruin, there was a sturdy 
people growing into empire elsewhere that would con- 
serve the blessings and benefits of justice and civilization. 
But to-day all the world is bound together by the tele- 
graph, the printing-press, the railroad, and the steam- 
ship, and there is not an isolated nook or corner of the 
earth that the hand of the corporations of money lovers 
has not laid hold upon. Every one of the resources of 
nature is seized, — its coal, its timber, its water-power, 
etc., etc. Thus is this dominant power of the age seen 



174 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

to be holding sway everywhere; and all who are giving 
careful attention to the controlling sentiments among men, 
know that the purpose is not to stand unflinchingly and 
uprightly for " justice, judgment, and righteousness," but 
to see how the "almighty dollar" can be captured, and 
how much luxurious and often vice-laden pleasure can 
be had from it after it is obtained. 

Again let it be said that this is not a secret that is 
given in these pages, neither is it a theory. It is the 
statement of literal facts. And it is hoped that the reader 
will give it careful consideration in the light of God's 
prophetic word, for it has a significant meaning to this 
generation of men. 

With the money power at work everywhere, and es- 
pecially in legislatures and courts, is it any wonder that 
our large cities should become so infected with the evil 
contagion as to make them strong centers in spreading 
injustice and crime? 

In an address entitled "Lawlessness," and published 
by the Civic Forum of New York City, Charles W. Eliot, 
retired president of Harvard University, said: 

"A well-known politician who had had experience in 
city, state, and national administration once asked me if 
I knew what the vice of politicians was. On my pro- 
fessing an uncertainty on that point, he said, ' Stealing, 
just plain stealing.' When we read about the robbing of 
cities by their own officials through rake-offs on contracts, 
commissions on purchases and pay-rolls, padded pay-rolls, 
and bribes for votes against the city's interests, we some- 
times feel as if this experienced politician's verdict were 
absolutely correct. When we read of officers of the law, 
whose duty it is to repress and punish vice, habitually 



JUDGMENT IS TURNED AWAY BACKWARD 175 

collecting from the haunts of the worst vices large sums 
of money paid for protection, we feel as if lawlessness 
could go no farther, as if we had really reached the bot- 
tom of the pit. Surely there is no worse lawlessness in 
any part of our country than that developed by dishonest 
governments in great cities." 

In another part of the same address Mr. Eliot said: 
"Our protracted criminal trials, with their many volumes 
of typewritten evidence and arguments, their unreason- 
able technicalities, ingenious metaphysical defenses, and 
possibilities of appeal and retrial, are travesties of justice, 
and in practise amount to a grave public danger. They 
account for a large part of the increasing distrust of 
courts in the popular mind." 

William H. Taft, in a speech before the Rochester 
Chamber of Commerce, said, "The one thing which dis- 
graces our civilization to-day is the delays of civil and 
criminal justice, and these delays always work in favor 
of the man with the longest purse." 

A paragraph from an article in M c Clure's Magazine, 
by Burton J. Hendrick, sets forth the conditions of the 
cities in the words that follow: "At different times, New 
York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Pitts- 
burg, and Philadelphia — to name only a few — have 
found themselves engaged in the fiercest contests with 
the organized outlaws and outcasts of human society. 
Their history represents a harassing attempt to keep the 
social sediment at the bottom — to prevent it from rising 
to the top and submerging the machinery of government. 
In these cities the people whose natural habitation is the 
penitentiary or the workhouse have repeatedly been found 
in control of the municipal organization. Political parties, 



176 HEKALDS OF THE MOKNING 

so called, have existed, not for the purpose of maintain- 
ing certain civic ideals, but merely as clearing-houses for 
commercializing the vices that, to some degree at least, 
seem inherently a part of city life." 

In the pool-rooms and policy-shops — and they are 
usually in the back part of some saloon — every form of 
robbery is concocted and carried out. The city is dis- 
tricted, and each thief and confidence man has a given 
territory in which to work, and is placed under the charge 
of the policeman in that section; and if in plying his in- 
famous business, one of them, either by chance or by de- 
sign, gets out of his prescribed limits into the territory 
of another, he is promptly notified by the policeman on 
duty that he must desist, or be "run in." 

As we might naturally expect, in the operation of such 
a system of iniquity, policemen are appointed and pro- 
moted, not on account of bravery or any other peculiar 
fitness for the responsibilities of the office, but because, 
according to the slang of politics, they have a "pull." 
But notwithstanding the "pull," they have to pay for 
the office, a police captain sometimes paying as high as 
$15,000 for his appointment. 

Space can not be given to the recital of the long story 
of oppression and worse than highway robbery that are 
carried on under this high-handed system of iniquity; 
but this calls attention to the fact that the great cities 
are standing prominently in the place where "justice is 
turned away backward, and righteousness standeth afar 
off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness can 
not enter." 

And, furthermore, enough is given in these pages to 
show that cunning men have taken the vices of the pros- 



JUDGMENT IS TURNED AWAY BACKWARD 177 

titute, the degradations of the saloon and gambling den, 
together with the workings of assassin and robber, and 
combined them into an organized business ; and from this 
shameful and degraded business, this business that ruins 
both soul and body, they stoop to get their livelihood. A 
man will even, while conducting such a business, build 
him a mansion amid respectable surroundings, marry a 
wife, and rear a family, from the proceeds of what ought 
to be his everlasting shame. 

What a spectacle is thus afforded! Every city has its 
great army of men and women who have the vices and 
crimes of the place under an organization as strong and 
well denned as the merchants and the manufacturers have 
for the transaction of their legitimate and laudable pur- 
suits. And this trafficking in vices and crimes is so 
strictly protected that the men who get their living from 
the fruits of wickedness pass along in reputable circles 
of society just as if they were honest and respectable 
citizens. While these characters are more to be despised 
than outlaws, yet they have, by blinding the eyes of 
justice, fortified themselves so effectually that it is next 
to impossible to detect and convict them. They have 
linked themselves so closely with the wealthy business in- 
terests of the country, and have made themselves so 
necessary to the wealthy men, that courts are corrupted, 
and the whole machinery of justice is " turned away 
backward. ' ' 

The crimes and corruptions of San Francisco were 
kept prominently before the world for several years. 
Able prosecutors and detectives did their best to bring 
the arch-perpetrators to justice. Everybody who knows 
the indisputable facts, and the confessions that were made, 

12 



178 HEKALDS OF THE MORNING 

will tell you that the men who were prosecuted were guilty. 
But only a few convictions were secured, and it is with 
difficulty that those which were secured can be made to 
stand. Justice and righteousness can not be maintained. 

In a speech made before the graduating class of the 
University of the Pacific, while the San Francisco prose- 
cutions were at their height, Francis J. Heney said that 
the conditions in San Francisco were no worse than in 
any other large city of the land. Mr. Heney is in a posi- 
tion to speak with authority on this question. He stands 
where he has opportunity to know the facts. He also 
stated, in the same speech, that this municipal corruption 
is so interwoven with politics that it has destroyed our 
representative government. The office-holder does not 
represent the people at large; he represents the political 
"boss" who has secured his election; and city, state, or 
national officers that are actuated by such low principles, 
open the way for the traffic in vice and crime of every 
form. 

It was during the sixties of the nineteenth century that 
"Boss" Tweed, as leader of his political ring in New 
York City, was perpetrating frauds that became the 
sensation of the civilized world. Some who were living 
at that time can well remember the shock that Tweed gave 
to society. Evidence was " secured against him, and he 
was arrested and placed in jail, where he died. It was 
thought that his "ring" of corrupt politicians and offi- 
cials was broken, and that the exposures were so thorough 
that we would not soon have a repetition of such or- 
ganized rascality right in the heart of the governing body 
of one of our great cities. 

But the evil germs had been implanted, and the con- 



JUDGMENT IS TURNED AWAY BACKWARD 179 

tagion has spread from city to city and from village to 
village, until it has become one of the common things 
of the day to find in the papers reports of the trials of 
officials who are prosecuted for their crooked course in 
official transactions. 

Cases of official corruption have followed in quick 
succession from Tweed's time down to the present. But 
perhaps one of the latest and possibly one of the worst 
cases is furnished by the city of Seattle. Mr. Gill ran 
for the office of mayor, making " restricted districts" one 
of his principal campaign cries, and was elected. 

He soon showed the city what he meant by " restricted 
districts." He and his associates in office — not to speak 
of them as being associates in vices and crimes — " re- 
stricted" the houses of prostitution, the gambling dens, 
and similar resorts, to certain sections of the city; but in 
those sections he permitted them to have their crime- 
committing freedom. He made Seattle such a paradise 
for thugs, gamblers, prostitutes, and the like, that they 
came there in droves. 

It was a great harvest for Mayor Gill (let us blush 
when we prefix such a title to such a name) and his 
confederates. For confidence man, thug, prostitute, and 
every other representative of vice and crime, were li- 
censed to do their work. They were not licensed by the 
city, it is true, in the regular way. But these corrupt 
and corrupting officials gave them full privilege to op- 
erate, on payment of a certain proportion of their vice- 
laden income to the men who had taken oath to support 
law and order. 

When vices and crimes are taxed and made to yield 
an income to officials, it is easy to see that the officials 



180 HEKALDS OF THE MORNING 

work to perpetuate and increase rather than to suppress 
the evils from which they reap their harvest. And that 
is one of the worst features of present-day conditions. 
Men have learned how to make the base appetites and 
vile passions of humanity, and its criminality as well, a 
source of easy and enormous gain. Hence one of the in- 
dustries that must be recognized as in active operation in 
the world to-day is this infamous industry that derives 
its gain from vice and crime. 

To state the facts in regard to these things, it would 
seem, ought to raise such an indignant protest of popular 
sentiment as would drive the wicked business off the 
face of the earth. But such, it is sad to say, is not the 
case. There is an indifference or a stupor concerning 
this condition that is indeed appalling. 

It is true that the conditions in Seattle became such 
a social stench that a petition was started to work the 
recall on Mayor Gill. But there was indifference on the 
part of many, while many others were held by fear or 
personal interest, and consequently it took a long time 
to get enough signatures to make the recall operative. 
But the recall election was finally arranged, and a vigor- 
ous campaign conducted, and Gill was turned out of 
office, and a more worthy man seated in the mayor's 
chair. 

But Gill and his confederates did not cease their opera- 
tions. It was not a great time after his recall until the 
next regular election. And he so manipulated the poli- 
tics of the city as to " split" the vote that should have 
been solidly against him. He came near getting enough 
votes at the primary to give the mayor's chair back to 
him, and the reform forces were able to win out at the 



JUDGMENT IS TURNED AWAY BACKWARD 181 

election itself by only a very uncomfortable majority. 
Popular sentiment is not so decisive as to drive these 
degraded men from the field. They are allowed to re- 
main as infecting germs that spread the contagion wider 
and deeper, so that it is ever breaking out afresh in more 
virulent forms. 

All such cases serve to show that the good men and 
women of the time are righting a losing game against 
these organized forces of crime and injustice, and there- 
fore the only power left to strike it down is the infinite 
arm of the Almighty. 

It has been fondly hoped and affirmed by many that 
the exposures of this corruption would produce a public 
sentiment that would sweep it from the earth; but these 
high hopes have not been realized. 

The testimony of one of New York's leading dailies 
on the subject is that "the practise among burglars and 
highwaymen of using torture to compel their victims to 
tell where they have hidden their money, seems to be on 
the increase, and thieves appear to be even more ready 
now with knife or pistol than they were in former years. 
It is painfully evident that in many parts of the country 
murderous criminals now feel less fear of punishment 
than they felt in the eighties or the early nineties." 

It is not necessary to say more, for intelligent read- 
ers generally are aware of the fact that in all our cities 
there is a network of organized and protected traffickers 
in vice and criminality that, it would seem, ought to put 
the pallors of mortal shame on the countenance of even 
Satan himself. 

If it seemed necessary, the reader might be con- 
ducted through the maze of investigations and litigations 



182 HEKALDS OF THE MOKNING 

that have been and that are still carried on to suppress 
the fraudulent seizing of the valuable timber, mineral, 
and grazing lands of the public domain; the monopoly of 
water rights, both for irrigation and for power purposes; 
the system of rebating among the railroads, that allows 
the influential and wealthy shipper to " freeze out" the 
small dealer; the frauds of the insurance companies; the 
artful combinations that have been formed in so many 
ways for the control of trade; and thus on to the end 
of the list. 

We might multiply by the thousand instances of wid- 
ows whose husbands have been killed by the carelessness 
or some other fault of the great corporations that em- 
ployed them. These widows, with a just cause, have gone 
before the courts for redress ; but appeal after appeal has 
been taken from one court to another by these moneyed 
corporations, and it is not unusual for from six to ten or 
more years to be consumed in reaching a decision, and 
too often this belated decision is adverse to the petitioner. 
But if it chances to be favorable, the costs of court and 
lawyer have practically consumed all that is received. In 
either case the injured person gets no relief. 

Such procedure is manifestly for the purpose of dis- 
couraging damage suits against these corporations and 
men of wealth. But it is not necessary to point out its 
injustice, and every one knows that it has become a 
general saying that "it is no use to bring suit against 
any of the big corporations unless you have lots of 
money, no matter how just or how clear your case." 

These evils are not confined to the cities or domain 
of the United States, as is very well known. From 
time to time the periodicals of the day are telling us of 



JUDGMENT IS TURNED AWAY BACKWARD 183 

the corrupting influences that are leavening the cities of 
the Old World as well. It is no uncommon thing for the 
papers to be reporting and deploring the frauds and 
crimes that are committed by high officials, as well as the 
more lowly, in London, Berlin, and other influential cities 
of Europe and the Orient. These reports have shown, 
among other things, that the same scandalous crimes are 
carried on there, under the cover of official protection 
and collusion, that have been discovered and exposed in 
New York, San Francisco, and elsewhere. 

It is a noteworthy fact that, whether it is across the 
water or in this land of America, when honest, thinking 
men meet to-day, one of the uppermost topics of dis- 
cussion is, "What shall we do to stay the avalanche of 
criminality that is coming down upon us?" There are 
criminals in high stations and criminals in the back alleys 
and gutters — criminals have stolen influential offices of 
state, and climbed into the judgment-seat." "What can 
be done?" is the anxious query. 

Hardly a week passes but the papers tell us of some 
trusted employee or official who has embezzled thousands, 
and often hundreds of thousands, yea, even millions of 
dollars. In many instances these embezzlements fall 
heaviest on the widow, the orphan, and the struggling 
poor man, whose careful savings, representing years of 
close economy, are thus basely stolen by men they have 
trusted. And in bringing this class of men to answer for 
their crimes, the same lack of justice prevails. Indeed, 
society seems to have the idea growing upon it that you 
can not help the evil, and accordingly men are settling 
down in stupefied indifference just to let things drift. 
You will hear some of them expressing the conviction 



184 HEEALDS OF THE MORNING 

that a great revolution will come to sweep the evil away. 
But where can the revolution come from to overthrow 
it? The temper of society in these days is so violent, and 
the means of rapid communication are so general, that a 
revolution would soon spread into all the world, and 
oceans of blood would flow. Our one and our mighty 
star of hope is the second coming of the Lord and Sa- 
viour Jesus Christ. 

The foregoing pages take only the briefest and most 
limited survey of the increasing injustice of our time. 
Nor has it been the design of the author always to select 
the most recent or the most unrighteous deeds from this 
political and social mire of the present days. It has 
been the purpose to select representative cases that mark 
the fulfilment of prophecy. The reader has doubtless 
been compelled to see and hear much more of it; for it 
is distressingly prevalent everywhere. The important 
question is, What does it portend? 

Surely the evils in Noah's time could not have been 
greater or darker than those which are cursing the world 
to-day. Most literally are we in the time when " justice 
is turned away backward, and righteousness standeth 
afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and upright- 
ness can not enter. Yea, truth is lacking; and he that 
departeth from evil maketh himself a prey. And Jehovah 
saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice." 
Isa. 59 : 14, 15. 

And note further that since man refuses to exercise 
justice, and has become such a strong oppressor of the 
weak, and such a devotee to vice and crime, the Lord 
has given the assurance, in verses already quoted in this 
chapter, that He will "put on righteousness as a breast- 



JUDGMENT IS TURNED AWAY BACKWARD 



185 



plate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head; and He 
put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad 
with zeal as a mantle. According to their deeds, accord- 
ingly He will repay, wrath to His adversaries, recom- 
pense to His enemies." 

Looking to this world, the prospect is gloomy enough 
indeed; but there is a great gleaming of light. It is not 
centered in this corrupt earth, however, but it is shining 
from that Book which holds forth the promises of the 
Coming One. All hail to this glorious light of eternal 
day! Justice in the earth is hard to find; but justice 
from on high is about to strike. Who, with a knowledge 
of the facts, can expect that it will be long delayed? 





CHAPTER 
SEVENTEEN 

T should be particu- 
larly noticed that in 
speaking of the days 
of Noah, the record says, "The end of all flesh is come 
before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through 
them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth." 
Gen. 6:13. 

At that time the land had become " filled with vio- 
lence," and God found it necessary to destroy the earth. 
The misery, the oppression, the vices and crimes that 
abound where everything is given up to evil, would of 
course, if time were given them, work out the destruction 
of the whole race; but it would be amid prolonged tor- 
tures and indescribable anguish, from which no possible 
good could result. Hence the divine destruction of such 
abandoned evil is in reality the measuring out of infinite 
mercy. 

The agencies are actively working that must soon 
produce the terrible condition of which it will truly be 

186 



THE EARTH IS FILLED WITH VIOLENCE 187 

said, "The earth is filled with violence." Who has not 
been impressed by the rapidly increasing tendency toward 
"mob law"! Day by day the record comes to us of some 
poor wretch who, without the benefit of either judge or 
jury, is taken with "violence," and brutally and in- 
humanly put to death. Leading jurists and statesmen, 
viewing this increasing tendency to mob "violence" in 
dealing with crime, regard the situation with grave ap- 
prehension. The Hon. I. C. Parker, judge of the United 
States District Court for the Western District of Arkan- 
sas, says: 

"When we go to the facts, . . . ive can easily rec- 
ognize that the greatest evil of any civilised age is con- 
fronting us, not only in the shape of crimes committed 
by individuals, but also of crimes committed by masses 
of men who are endeavoring by bloody and improper 
means to seek a remedy — I mean those who band them- 
selves together as mobs to seek that protection which 
they fail to obtain under the forms of law." 

Judge Parker also states his opinion as to the cause 
of this increase of murder and mob violence. He says: 
"It is largely because of the corrupt methods resorted 
to, to defeat the law's administration, and because courts 
of justice look to the shadow, in the shape of techni- 
calities, rather than to the substance, in the shape of 
crimes. . . . Now, the condition is so serious — and it 
is growing more so all the time — that there must be 
some remedy. . . . The cause of this condition springs 
in part from a morbid, diseased public sentiment, which 
begets undue sympathy for the criminal, and has none 
whatever for his murdered victim. It grows out of the 
indifference of the people to the enforcement of the 



188 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

criminal law. It arises from corrupt verdicts begotten 
by frauds and perjuries. It arises from the undue ex- 
ercise of influence, either monetary, social, or otherwise, 
so that juries are carried away from the line of duty." 

The foregoing statements were made after a careful 
and exhaustive study of the subject. The judge has had 
unexcelled opportunities to scan the whole field, and learn 
the true state of affairs, and he has studied simple facts 
that men and women everywhere are affirming and de- 
ploring. In harmony with the foregoing from Judge 
Parker is the following statement of Judge Elliott An- 
thony : 

"There is dissatisfaction everywhere throughout the 
country in regard to the methods adopted and the course 
pursued by our courts in dealing with the violators of 
the law, and it is but little wonder that the people in 
some of the oldest portions of the republic have at times 
become exasperated at the trifling and juggling which are 
allowed, and have wreaked summary vengeance on thugs 
and assassins, to the disgrace of civilization and the age 
in which we live." 

Following these statements, the words of the lord chan- 
cellor of England are forcible and to the point. He says : 
"There is nothing which will so dissociate men, which will 
drive nations to madness so quickly, as the belief that 
the justice of the country is not honestly and impartially 
administered. ' ' 

Mr. William H. Taft, who served with distinction on 
the bench and also in many other conspicuous and re- 
sponsible positions before he was elected to the presi- 
dency, has recently said: 

"There are abundant evidences that the prosecution of 



THE EAETH IS FILLED WITH VIOLENCE 189 

criminals lias not been certain and thorough to the point 
of preventing popular protest. The existence of lynch- 
ing in all parts of the country is directly traceable to this 
lack of uniformity and thoroughness in the enforcement 
of our criminal laws. . . . The inequality that exists 
in our present administration of justice, and that sooner 
or later is certain to rise and trouble us, and to call for 
popular condemnation and reform, is in the unequal bur- 
den which the delays and expense of litigation under our 
system impose on the poor litigant." 

Ex-President Eliot, in his lecture on " Lawlessness, ' ' 
quoted in the preceding chapter, says the following upon 
this subject of violence: 

"The defenses of society against criminals have been 
broken down. A state mounted police, with a thorough 
military organization, is needed in every part of our 
country — north, south, east, and west. The impunity 
with which crimes of violence are now committed is a 
disgrace to the country, and demonstrates the urgent 
need of much more effectual protective forces. These 
forces should be provided, whatever they cost, for the 
credit of free institutions, which ought to prove them- 
selves at least as competent as other governmental re- 
gimes to provide the people with security for their lives 
and property. It is time the American communities real- 
ized that a government which does not secure to its people 
order, tranquillity, and immunity from criminal violence 
and the fear of such violence, does not deserve to be 
called civilized." 

The statements of these well-known men are not given 
to prove facts, but to state facts that every one knows 
are in existence all about us at this very time. Not only 



190 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

is it known that these facts exist, but it is equally well 
known that the wrong conditions pointed out are spread- 
ing and deepening with an alarming rapidity. 

The mobs that rise up so frequently like armies in 
various parts of the country show the violent tendencies 
of the times. There is a regular epidemic of lynchings, 
riotings, and the like. The spirit of anarchy has so taken 
hold of the minds of a small class, that no reigning mon- 
arch or other ruler, be he ever so upright and kind in 
his administrations, is safe from the plots of skulking 
assassins, who lurk at every turn to catch an opportunity 
to take the lives of the ones standing at the head of gov- 
ernmental authority. The unusually large number of ru- 
lers who have fallen victims to this reign of lawlessness, 
during recent decades, in both this country and foreign 
lands, are among the silent witnesses to the growing vio- 
lence of our times. And this turbulent rioting spirit is 
increasing very rapidly, and shows that the restraining 
bands of law and order are being consumed by the fires 
of unbridled hatred and revengeful emotions. 

Bishop Newman said: "This is the most unsettled 
condition of the world since the crucifixion of Christ. 
. . . The stability of government is no longer a fact. 
Change is in the atmosphere. It is just as true now as 
a thousand years ago, 'Thou knowest not what a day 
may bring forth.' . . . Statesmen are at their wits' end. 
Philosophers speculate in vain." 

The forcible truth of Bishop Newman's statements 
may be fully realized by any one who will take the 
trouble to note the events of these days. 

Look at the domestic troubles that are perplexing the 
governments of earth. There are riots, and strikes, and 



THE EARTH IS FILLED WITH VIOLENCE 191 

outbreaking discontent everywhere. No man can predict 
the day when these will result in wide-spread turmoil 
and openly violent strife. Revolution is smoldering on 
all sides, and it can not but break away from its restraints 
at no distant day ; and when once it becomes general, there 
is no power this side of the second coming of Christ that 
can ever stop it. 

Socialistic tendencies are gaining rapidly in both the 
Old World and the New. And while the Socialist may 
have lofty ideals of "humanitarianism,'' yet it can not 
be denied that he echoes the mighty roar of general dis- 
content. Witness the recent industrial wars of England; 
similar conditions that have obtained in Spain and France ; 
Germany's social troubles, which forebode violence and 
strife; the seething caldron of revolution in Russia; the 
social turmoil of Austria, Italy, and the countries in gen- 
eral that make up the south of Europe. India is a menace 
to her rulers, because of her turbulence; China, Japan, 
and the rest of the Orient have imbibed the same unhappy 
spirit that is so prevalent; while the revelations that have 
come to light through the confessions of the McNamaras 
(to mention only one of the items) show something of 
the desperate sentiments that are cultivated here against 
the great organizations of business and manufacture. 

Every nation has her contending elements. Solidity 
and union in society can be found in no country. And 
while this has always been true to a limited extent, it 
has never presented such conditions and such social dan- 
gers as to-day. And where so many influences are work- 
ing, and all at cross purposes with one another, it must 
be evident to any one that this seed-sowing will produce 
a harvest of anarchy and violence. As already suggested, 



192 HEEALDS OF THE MOKNING 

many think that these conditions betoken a great revolu- 
tion that will purify the world; but a revolution of puri- 
fication could never come out of such a sea of discord 
and strife. For not only is society broken up into these 
warring factions, but there is such a prevalence of im- 
morality and criminality that the only result that could 
come from the breaking loose of such forces w T ould be 
the absolute chaos of anarchy itself. The restraining 
hand of the Almighty is the only power that keeps these 
forces from bursting forth and flooding the world with 
a deluge of destruction. We may well sing praises to 
the Most High that it is His divine plan to send His 
Son to earth to cut this prospective reign of terror short 
in its mad career, and thus keep it from reaching the 
possible limits of its direful harvest. 

In all the w T orld may be found, as some one has termed 
it, "the century-vexing problem of capital and labor." 
There is an irrepressible strife between these two camps. 
We may seek to minimize it by words ; but the evil growth 
is there, nevertheless, and sooner or later the world-wide 
struggle will. begin. Money has been used to defeat jus- 
tice, it has been used to control elections and legislatures. 
Fortunes have been accumulated that rival the stories 
about Midas and Croesus; and over against these colossal 
treasures and their possessors may be seen the gathering 
legions of organized labor as Avell as the army of the 
poverty-stricken and destitute. 

In every strike " violence" is becoming more pro- 
nounced. The hatred that is cultivated against trusts, 
corporations, and the individual possessors of great for- 
tunes, is growing deeper and more vengeful. 

Briefly reviewing the situation, we find that the love 



THE EAKTH IS FILLED WITH VIOLENCE 193 

of money is corrupting the age. The judge is blinded by 
bribes. Money is used illicitly to elect legislators, and 
also to influence the making of laws. With these evils 
working so extensively in what are called the higher 
circles, composed of the wealthy and influential members 
of society, is it to be wondered at that town and city poli- 
ticians should learn the lesson, and put it into active 
operation'? Need we be surprised that the city has its 
corrupt politicians, its dishonest and criminal policemen, 
and its magistrates who will not protect the oppressed, 
and who seek a bribe to influence every decision? And 
when the magistrate or judge will free the robber and 
assassin for a gift of money, it is but a natural conse- 
quence that murders and robberies should become more 
numerous and daring. 

In short, society to-day is a school that is filling the 
world with criminals, and the fact should not be passed 
by that a flood of pernicious literature is a mighty factor 
in this debasing work. Especially does this literature 
pervert the minds of boys and turn them into the down- 
ward road of criminality while they are yet children. It 
has become a very common thing to read of lads and 
even little lasses still in their teens who commit robberies, 
murders, and all the rest of the crimes. 

Juvenile courts have become very general, and are 
a necessity of these modern times. The corrupting influ- 
ences among children and youth are poisoning the very 
fountains of society. The parental care and restraint that 
should correct this evil are so sadly lacking that many so- 
cieties and organizations have been formed to try to turn 
the wayward children from the path of ruin. Many have 
suggested state control in order to make the rising genera- 

13 



194 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

tion what it should be. But with the corruptions that 
every ..one knows abound in the organization of the state, 
how can there be any hope in that direction ? 

Now, in the very nature of things, all these corrupt- 
ing practises of this time are drowning the sense of jus- 
tice. The world is driving headlong into that time when 
" every imagination" will be "only evil continually' ' ; and 
who can conceive the extent of the " violence" with which 
the earth will be filled when the harvest of sin is fully 
ripe? 

The Lord looked down the ages to these last days. 
He has shown in advance what the culminating works of 
sin will be. He has taken pains to unmask it, and in 
every way possible to warn us against the evil, while He 
freely offers us the good. Many of the poor souls who 
are floundering in the lowest depths of the dark sins of 
this time do not know that the Saviour still loves them. 
They are not acquainted with the truth that He died not 
only to save them, but to make the depths of His love 
more manifest to them. 

In these last days truly "the earth is filled with vio- 
lence." Though this violence has not yet broken out with 
all its malignant terrors, nevertheless the seeds of the 
evil are rapidly growing into a prolific harvest. But "the 
days of the Son of man" are at hand. He will separate 
sin from the hearts of all who will yield to His molding 
touch, and He will fashion them into jewels of His grace. 
Then in that near day of His coming it will be a joy to 
be made like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And 
every one who has this hope in him is so filled with re- 
joicing that he has no fear for the violence or any of 
the other disturbing features of this time. 





CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 

| HE Saviour made mention of the "days of Lot," 
as well as the days of Noah, to represent the depths 
of vice that would be reached in the last days. Let 
us read His words again: "As it was in the days of 
Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 
I'hey did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were 
given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into 
the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Like- 
wise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they 
drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 
but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained 
fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 
Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man 
is revealed. ' ' Luke 17 : 26-30. 

The word of God tells us that in the "days of Noah" 
"every imagination" of man's heart was "only evil con- 
tinually"; and since these same depths of evil imaginings 
will prevail again at the close of time, it should not be a 
matter of surprise that the corrupting vice of Sodom as 
it was in "the days of Lot" will break out as a debasing 
plague. 

The grossest sin of Sodom was her abandoned licen- 
tiousness. When we wish to describe the very lowest sink 

i 195 



196 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

of lust, we speak of it as a "veritable Sodom." The 
depravity of mankind was manifested in that wicked city 
in its vilest and most shameful forms. It is sad to know 
that the human race, excepting those, of course, who re- 
sist the influences of Satan, will again be led by him into 
such gross sensuality; but such is the prediction of the 
word of God, and it is being fulfilled. 

The prevalence of licentiousness is only too apparent. 
The evidences of the existence of houses of shame are 
not disguised. It would seem that our boasted civiliza- 
tion should sweep such disgusting spectacles away, as 
too loathsome to be endured; but legislatures and city 
councils, at least to the extent of a majority, look upon 
the prostitute as a necessity; and, besides, as already 
pointed out, the corrupt city officials have made her an 
asset in business — they reap a harvest of money from her 
vices. Age-of-consent statutes have been enacted that 
allow men to seduce little girls to their ruin, with no 
fear of legal penalties to deter them. 

It is a mystery how grown-up men — the fathers of 
girls — can stand up in the legislative assemblies, and 
seriously propose and enact such laws. How can men be 
so lost to the sense of shame, even if their sense of justice 
is gone, as to support the idea that a child in her early 
"teens" may "consent" to abandon her virtue, without 
being first deceived by a base libertine? Why, a child 
of such tender years can not comprehend what she is 
doing. She does not as yet have the mental development 
that will enable her to look down the awful road into 
which the cruel, lustful seducer is turning her childish, 
innocent feet. "We are in the full blaze of the great 
enlightenment and humanitarian civilization of the twen- 



THE SOCIAL VICE 197 

tieth century!" Yes, that is the boast of this age. But, 
nevertheless, can any one imagine that Sodom could have 
done much worse than first to make such great preten- 
sions, and then deliberately make laws that would shield 
the villain of lust in ruining little girls'? No child can 
give her consent to such vice, and realize its enormity; 
and such age-of-consent laws are nothing less than a 
legal protection to the vice by which, with satanic cun- 
ning, the innocents are hurled into shameless ruin. 

But these " age-of-consent " laws are only in harmony 
with the idea that has become so common that it is neces- 
sary to provide for the " regulation" of vices. It is 
claimed that they can not be rooted out, and hence it is 
necessary to make laws to " regulate" them. And yet 
these same men who claim that vice can not be stamped 
out, will tell you in the next breath that the world is 
growing better and better and soon we will have a millen- 
nium of righteousness. How can there be a millennium 
of right-doing in a world where vice can not be destroyed, 
but can only be " regulated"? 

The attempt to "regulate" any form of evil by law 
gives it a standing that can but result in its increase. 
The liquor traffic has been "regulated" by law, with the 
result that the consumption of intoxicating drinks has in- 
creased from 4.17 gallons per person in 1840 to 26.53 
gallons per person in 1907. And the very sentiment that 
asserts that the debasing vices of the brothel must be 
permitted and "regulated" only serves to increase the 
evil. The divine injunction is, "Put ye on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to 
fulfil the lusts thereof." Bom. 13:14. Every perfectly 
true person will stand on this platform. 



198 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

There is a regular traffic in young girls; and that is 
one reason why these age-of -consent laws can still hold 
their place on our statute-books. Men of wealth who fre- 
quent the house of shame will pay a big premium to get 
young and innocent girls for their vile purposes, and the 
brothel sends its agents out to find little girls who are 
just entering their teens. Sometimes these innocents can 
be lured away by childish gifts; sometimes, if they are 
a little older, the villains make love to them, and propose 
to marry them; and finally the unsuspecting child is 
enticed into a life of shame, misery, and ruin. 

Only demons could inspire such work, and only men 
who are under the beguiling influence of demons would 
yield themselves as agents to do it. 

But, you ask, how can such evils be carried on in a 
civilized land? Why is not the law invoked, and the evil 
stopped? Here, again, is where the corruption of the 
officers of the law serves these vile persons in carrying 
on their traffic of shame. The laws in most localities are 
against houses of ill-fame; but the policeman is bribed, 
or perhaps it would be nearer the truth to say that the 
policeman takes it upon himself to license vice and 
sensuality. 

In the investigations of corruption in San Francisco, 
Seattle, Chicago, etc., it has been proved over and over 
again that the house of prostitution was one of the main 
sources of steady income to the gangs that held corrupt 
power. The vice is entrenched everywhere, and describing 
it in one city is only to disclose what is in existence in 
every other. Vice has always existed to a greater or less 
degree, but this covetous age has seized it as a lucrative 
business, and shams respectability while carrying it on. 



THE SOCIAL VICE 199 

Does not a knowledge of these horrible facts cause 
the heart to burn with indignation? Does it not make 
one feel ashamed that he belongs to a race that has sunk 
so low? 

With the police force financially interested in the per- 
petuation and increase of prostitution, it is easy to see 
why it is so difficult to protect young girls from being 
dragged into the corruption of the brothel. Agents are 
sent out everywhere to be on the lookout for victims to 
lure into the dens of vice; and oftentimes the very blue- 
coat who is appealed to for protection will only help to 
make the ruin of the victim all the more secure. Thou- 
sands of the young women who are held in the houses 
of ill-fame have been decoyed there, and are kept against 
their will — a thing that could not be done if officers were 
faithful to their high responsibilities. 

While speaking of the financial and business interest 
that many public officials have in the resorts of vice and 
prostitution, it should not be overlooked that there is a 
regular slave traffic in young girls. Traders a hundred 
years ago brought black men and women to these shores 
to sell them to a life of toil on the plantations of slave- 
owners. But a far worse and more degrading slave traffic 
is going on to-day. Wiley J. Phillips, chairman of the 
White Slave Traffic Committee, in his annual report 
Nov. 1, 1907, said: 

"There is still a traffic in human beings in the United 
States, and Chicago is a great slave market. In the 
Twenty-second Street district of Chicago 278 young girls 
under 14 years of age were taken from disreputable re- 
sorts by the police in two months. America is not only 
receiving girl victims of an organized traffic, but is ex- 



200 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

porting them to other countries. Seattle is an exporting 
station from which girls from Los Angeles, New Orleans, 
and New York, are sent. The number of foreign girls in 
disorderly houses is proof of the systematic importation, 
with which the Government should interfere." 

At a later time than the writing of Mr. Phillips, a 
"vice commission" made careful and exhaustive research 
in Chicago in order to get the real truth of this "white 
slave traffic. " When their investigations were over they 
published their findings in a book, and their mere recital 
of facts presented such vile conditions that the United 
States postal authorities deemed it necessary to exclude 
the publication from the mails. 

In the early part of the year 1912, in the territory 
between Chicago and New York, some 1,700 young girls 
were reported missing during about thirty days' time. 
These girls drop out of sight, never to be heard of again, 
for the "white slave" kidnaper is able to secrete them 
completely, while he (or she, as the case may be) com- 
pels these innocents to enter a life of prostitution. Think 
of the miseries and heartaches that fall to these young 
girls who are ruthlessly torn away from their homes 
and never again allowed to see father or mother or any 
other relatives. They are kept under the influence of 
wine and drugs until they become abandoned to their 
shameless life; and then their course downward to the 
grave is most rapid indeed, for very few of them live 
more than four or five years after they are dragged into 
these habitations of Sodom. 

Consider what this means ! Young girls are decoyed 
from their homes, and in many cases, to make sure of 
them, they are deported to foreign lands, to enter the 



THE SOCIAL VICE 201 

slavery ck the house of prostitution. They are com- 
pelled to take up this life in spite of themselves. Their 
captors keep them so securely imprisoned that they have 
no opportunity to appeal to any human hand for help. 
Away from home and in a strange land, they are doomed 
bv these human fiends to their life of misery and shame. 
Some people will mock at such things as being of no 
consequence. But it is just because the world is being 
filled with crying evils of this and many other descrip- 
tions that it will be necessary for the Lord Jesus to 
come in person to put an end to it. He has definitely 
promised it, and His clear promises are the bright and 
cheering hope of the righteous. 

Greed for money on the one hand, and great destitu- 
tion on the other, are also powerful factors in producing 
this wide-spread licentiousness. In our cities the so- 
called "merchant prince" in many instances pays his 
girl clerks starvation wages, and then deliberately teaches 
them to "make up the lack" by giving themselves as con- 
cubines to the respectable (?) libertine. This statement 
seems too shockingly disgusting to be true; but it is 
nevertheless a fact. 

The Eev. Louis A. Banks, in his book "White Slaves," 
has a chapter on "The Relation of Wages to Morals," in 
which he says: 

"I received a letter from a gentleman in Conway, 
N. H., this week, who writes, not knowing that I was 
intending to discuss this question: ' After you have given 
the sweating system one round, can you not take up the 
question of the girls working in the big stores? I have 
just heard a well-authenticated account of a man high 
in authority in one of the largest stores, suggesting the 



202 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

way to ruin to a young girl from the country, who said, 
when she learned what her wages were to be, that they 
would not be sufficient to give her a bare support. This 
not only shows the attitude of these wealthy merchants 
to the souls of their working girls, but it shows that they 
are conscious of their attitude, and have deliberately 
chosen to take it.' I am told, upon undoubtedly credible 
testimony, that another young woman who came to Bos- 
ton from the country, and sought work in several stores, 
was so outraged at the vile suggestions which were made 
to her about means of adding to her salary, that she 
went back to the house of her friend, — a lady of as high 
standing as any in the city, — and cried and sobbed all 
night long. She said she would beg or starve before she 
would submit herself to such outrage again. 

'It is impossible to turn these incidents aside as ex- 
aggerations. They are horrible, I know ; but the most hor- 
rible thing about them is that they are true." 

Some time ago the New York World contained a most 
touching and pathetic appeal from a young man, who, on 
account of continued illness, had lost his position, and 
was unable to protect the young lady he had chosen to 
make his life companion. The appeal read as follows: 

"In the interest of humanity I beg you will find space 
for this appeal — an appeal for protection for a young 
girl struggling against heavy odds in the battle of life — 
an appeal for some one to show her that vice is not al- 
ways triumphant over virtue; for some one to prove 
that it is not always necessary for a penniless girl to 
sacrifice purity and honor to gain a livelihood in this 
modern Babylon. 

"I seek only the protection of some Christian family 



THE SOCIAL VICE 203 

or nome for one who will not be a burden, for one whose 
own life has become burdensome to herself from the con- 
tinual persecutions she has had to resist, even in private 
houses and other places where her lot has been cast while 
striving to earn a living, and who even now is in daily 
peril of contamination under circumstances where the 
word of a defenseless girl would be powerless against the 
machinations of conscienceless fiends. What mother will 
stretch out her hand to save this unprotected daughter, 
not for charity's but for mercy's sake?" 

The editor of the World said concerning the foregoing 
appeal : 

"It is a cry of distress from one of the humble orders 
of life, and is the more moving and instructive because 
such cries are usually suppressed by the conditions which 
cause them. There are doubtless thousands of similar 
cases of young girls driven by the stress of poverty to 
hold perilous positions, and continually to expose them- 
selves to repeated temptations of their remorseless em- 
ployers. It is small wonder that under the prolonged 
strain, subjected to all forms of enticement and even in- 
timidation, human nature often wearies of the protracted 
efforts of resistance, and the victim falls at last a prey 
to the crafts and assaults of a treacherous sensuality." 

That the pollutions of lust are not confined to this 
country may be seen from the following statement from 
Lady Henry Somerset in regard to the condition of Lon- 
don. Speaking of the drink habit, so general in that great 
city among women and girls as well as men and boys, 
she says: 

"It is impossible to overrate the influence, the soul- 
destroying influence, this habit has had upon the homes 



204 HEKALDS OF THE MORNING 

of the poor; for it is by this, I am convinced, that the 
idea of right and wrong has come to be hopelessly con- 
fused when it is not absolutely lost. It is not uncommon 
to find a mother who since marriage has been a faithful 
wife, and perhaps before that a virtuous girl, looking on 
with indifference while her daughter 'goes on the streets,' 
and is lost in the unnumbered legion of victims hourly 
sacrificed to the demon of vice. She may regret the fact, 
as a mother in . a wealthier station might regret her 
daughter marrying beneath her-, but there is no shock, 
no natural horror at the wanton marring of God's fair- 
est handiwork, a woman's soul. In our long worship of 
mammon, the shame of poverty and the shame of sin 
have been confused. To the poor in their misery the 
burden of disgrace is but a slight addition to the load 
they already carry." 

While the evidence of the foregoing paragraphs per- 
tains to the open shame of the public prostitute and the 
traffic that has been established through the lusts of licen- 
tiousness, yet it is by no means the whole story. The 
revelations shown in the rapidly increasing divorce cases, 
as well as other facts that could be mentioned at length, 
give proof that the monster of licentiousness has in- 
vaded the sacred precincts of the home to do its soul- 
destroying work. The facts are too well known to require 
reciting here. 

But if anything further were needed, quotations could 
be added to almost any extent from the Ladies' Home Jour- 
nal and other reputable publications that have conducted 
extensive and painstaking investigations in this field in 
order to create a sentiment that would apply a remedy. 
But it is not necessary to produce further testimony to 



THE SOCIAL VICE 205 

show the conditions of sensuality that exist. Indeed, it 
would hardly seem necessary to produce any testimony 
other than to cite the scriptures that tell of the conditions 
God said would obtain in this time, and then ask the 
individual to look around at the state of things as every 
one knows it to be. Even the fences by the roadside, the 
walls of public buildings, and the columns of nearly every 
paper in the land, face us constantly with ingenious ad- 
vertisements of nostrums offered as a panacea for the 
numerous diseases produced by sensuality. Such exten- 
sive advertising costs large sums of money, and it would 
not be continued if it did not pay; and the thing that 
makes it pay is the prevalence of the debasing and disease- 
producing sins of Sodom. If no other evidence were 
given, there is enough in this one item of the extensive 
advertisements of remedies for these vile diseases, to show 
how full of vice the world must be. 

Can there be any doubt that we are living in the days 
on which the Saviour fixed His prophetic eyes when He 
said, "As it was in the days of Noah, . . . likewise 
also as it was in the days of Lot; . . . even thus shall 
it.be in the day when the Son of man is revealed"? 

And how forcibly do the words of the prophet Hosea 
come to mind: 

"Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: 
for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of 
the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowl- 
edge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and 
killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break 
out, and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the land 
mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall lan- 
guish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls 



206 HEKALDS OF THE MORNING 

of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken 
away." Hosea 4:1-3. 

" Swearing, and- lying, and killing, and stealing, and 
committing adultery" have broken ont, and truly " blood 
toncheth blood." Sodom, with its vile pollutions, is being 
reproduced all about us. And who can estimate how soon 
it must be decreed that the pure eyes of God can endure 
the scene no longer? The Lord made an example of 
Sodom anciently; there can be no mistaking His purpose 
in dealing decidedly with this modern Sodom that has 
spread its corrupting vices over the entire world. At 
that time His dealing was with a single city, but in this 
time His dealing is to be with all the inhabitants of the 
earth at the second coming of His Son. How cheering 
the thought that Jesus is soon to come and bring this 
reign of sin to an end! 

Those who are found corrupting themselves at His 
coming, will be destroyed by the brightness of His holi- 
ness and purity, which will be so gloriously revealed in 
that day; and He has faithfully pointed out all these 
things, in order that we may know and avoid the dangers 
of these times, and be ready to meet Him. Now He is 
yearning over every sinner, no matter how vile and pol- 
luted, and is earnestly calling each one to repentance, 
that He may purify his heart, and clothe him with the 
white garments of righteousness. 

The sinner who has plunged to the very lowest depth 
still finds in Jesus his Friend. "For we have not an 
High Priest which can not be touched with the feeling of 
our infirmities ; but was in all points tempted like as we 
are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto 



THE SOCIAL VICE 207 

the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find 
grace to help in time of need." Heb. 4: 15, 16. 

Think of it, O soul burdened with a load of sin ! Jesus 
so loves you that He took upon Himself our flesh, — this 
flesh that is so full of the tendency and desire to sin, — 
and all this that He might "be touched with the feeling of 
our infirmities." Then, tempted and sinful one, whoever 
and wherever you are, the Lord of glory is "touched" 
with your burdens; and when every earthly friend has 
forsaken you, know that He is ever your Friend. He 
knows all about your difficulties and trials; and as He 
knows your case perfectly, if you will only trust Him, 
He will administer just the consolation and help that are 
needed. 

The scribes and Pharisees of old, with their manu- 
factured dignity and sham holiness, "brought unto Him 
a woman taken in adultery," and asked Him what should 
be done with her. She bowed trembling before Him, and 
no doubt expected to hear Him . condemn her to death ; 
but the Master, His pure and discerning eye piercing the 
inmost secrets of their hearts, said to the Pharisees, "He 
that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone 
at her." Conscience-smitten by the irresistible sense of 
their guilt, they began one by one to steal away from His 
presence. When she whom they thought too vile to live 
was left alone with her Lord, He asked her, "Hath no 
man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And 
Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and 
sin no more." See John 8:3-11. 

When Jesus said to that fallen woman, "Go, and sin 
no more," there was power in that word both to cleanse 
her from all past sin, and also to keep her from falling 



THE SOCIAL VICE 



209 



again, so long as she continued to trust the Lord. Jesus 
hated sin worse than it was possible for those Pharisees 
to hate it; but He knew how to separate the sin from 
the sinner, and to speak peace to the burdened soul by 
saying, "Go, and sin no more." 

He is coming very soon to destroy all evil; and at 
that time, if wickedness is still found in our hearts, the 
only thing for us will be destruction, with our sins. But, 
O, He is now inviting us to come to Him, confessing 
our sinfulness, that He may cleanse us, and make us so 
pure that we may greet Him with rejoicing when He 
comes ! 

"To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your 
hearts." 




14 




CHAPTER NINETEEN 




| HE question is asked, "When the Son of man 
cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" Luke 
18 : 8. The very form of the expression shows that 
the Saviour's question is an emphatic statement of the 
great lack of genuine faith among those living at the 
close of time. This fact is further confirmed by His 
answer to the question, "What shall be the sign of Thy 
coming, and of the end of the world?" The Master says, 
"Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall 
wax cold." Matt. 24:3, 12. Then a great lack of faith, 
abounding iniquity, and the love of many waxing cold, 
are sufficiently prominent in the last days to be men- 
tioned as among the signs of the Saviour's coming. 

Another scripture is to the point in this connection. 
It reads: "This know also, that in the last days perilous 
times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own 
selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient 
to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, 
truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers 
of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers 
of pleasures more than lovers of God ; having a form of 

210 



MAINTAINING FORM BUT DENYING POWER 211 

godliness, but denying the power thereof : from such turn 
away." 2 Tim. 3:1-5. 

This scripture tells us plainly that " perilous times shall 
come/' and just as plainly does it say that these perils 
shall be "in the last days." No matter what our views 
may have been to the contrary, we should now surrender 
to the statement of God's word. What God says of the 
case is correct; what He has pointed to as signs of the 
end will surely appear, and we may see them if we will. 

There is another point in this text quoted from 
Timothy that we must not pass by. The apostle not only 
tells us that "in the last days perilous times shall come," 
but adds, "For men shall be lovers of their own selves," 
etc. The word "for" in this connection is equivalent to 
"because." Then the perils of the last days are brought 
about "for," or "because," men are so filled with covet- 
ousness, pride, and all the rest of the long list of the sins 
mentioned in this text. Note particularly that the text 
says that those engaged in these sins of darkest hue, are 
at the same time "having a form of godliness, but denying 
the power thereof." The world does not have a "form 
of godliness." Only a backslidden church could be in such 
a condition — a church fiUod with "lovers of pleasures more 
than lovers of God." When the things mentioned in this 
text appear, we may know that the "last days" are 
reached. For these days will be made "perilous" by the 
prevalence of evil. "Iniquity shall abound," and over all 
the mass of sin those who, by a lack of faith in God's 
word, are denying His power, will throw the hypocritical 
robes of a "form of godliness." 

With these quotations from Matthew, Luke, and Paul 
agrees the statement of Peter: "Knowing this first, that 



212 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after 
their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His 
coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things con- 
tinue as they were from the beginning of the creation/' 
2 Peter 3 : 3, 4. 

As the doctrine of the second coming of Christ is 
preached, there will be "scoffers." And, to be sure, since 
they are "walking after their own lusts," they will say 
in derision, "Where is the promise of His coming?" But 
the believer in the sure word of God will not be affected 
by these scoffers, except to see in them the evidence of 
the Master's coming, and, in pity for them, to work and 
pray that their hearts may be touched by divine grace, 
and turned away from their scoffings to a Saviour's tender 
love. 

How faithfully do these scriptures disclose the perils 
of the "last days"! How pointedly they tell us that sin 
shall be glossed over by the "form of godliness"; that 
faith will be almost wanting; that the "love of many 
shall wax cold" — and all because "iniquity shall abound;" 
and that amidst it all will be found the "scoffers," making 
light of the "promise of His coming"! 

With these scriptures before us, telling us so plainly 
that in the "last days" "godliness" will become a mere 
form among the great multitude, we have only to look 
about us to see the literal fulfilment. 

The thing that we naturally expect when we go to 
the house of God is to hear the preaching of the gospel 
"in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power." The 
theme that should be dwelt upon is the "Lamb of God, 
which taketh away the sin of the w T orld. ' ' But in how 
many of our churches is the preaching of the simple gospel 



MAINTAINING FORM BUT DENYING POWER 213 

sadly lacking! I have met hundreds of people, represent- 
ing all our various denominations, who recognize and de- 
plore this fact. 

But why this lack of power in the church? Why do 
we see only the "form" when we should expect to find 
the life and power belonging to the Master's church? 
There is one little statement in a text already quoted that 
furnishes the answer. Observe that it is said of those who 
have this "form of godliness," but deny "the power 
thereof," that they are "lovers of pleasures more than 
lovers of God." The pleasures that God offers are soul- 
satisfying, real, substantial, and abiding. They are filled 
with indescribable joys, and leave behind them only pleas- 
ant memories; and mingled with these pleasures is that 
joy of the Lord which comes from helping those who are 
in need. It is to deny self, and do right. There is an 
infinite joy and an eternal satisfaction in following the 
Lord's way. But by those living in the last days the 
transient pleasures of the world are chosen instead; and 
to such an extent is their pleasure-seeking carried, even 
while maintaining a "form of godliness," that it marks 
one of the distinctive signs of our times. Seeking for 
pleasure for the mere sake of selfish enjoyment has ever 
been the pursuit of the world; but now the craze takes 
possession of the church, and plunges it also into the 
ephemeral and delusive pleasures of time and sense. 

Who is there to-day that has not been impressed with 
the efforts made by so many of the churches and in so 
many places to supply amusement? This is done, of 
course, ostensibly to "raise money for the cause," or "to 
attract the young people in the church." Rev. Mr. Hale, 
who has made extensive observations in regard to church 



214 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

entertainments, gives an outline of what came under his 
notice during a single year. He mentions a church in 
Massachusetts which produced in regular theatrical fash- 
ion " Violet in Fairyland" and "A Comedy of Errors up 
to Date." A number of churches in the same State joined 
in giving a " laughable performance" entitled "Aunt Je- 
mima's Album." The young people in a church in Iowa 
gave a "New Woman Social." "The Mystic Midgets" is 
produced by a church in another quarter. And so his list 
continues. These are but a few of the semi-theatrical 
performances that are being given all the time in our 
churches all over the land. 

In almost every community the churches are vying 
with each other in producing some form of silly amuse- 
ment. If we were to go to a show or theater, we would 
naturally expect to see such performances. But have we 
actually reached the time when the professed church of 
Christ is showing herself to be imbecile by the worse 
than silly shows and counterfeit theatricals that she is 
giving, to the infinite satisfaction of Satan, while claim- 
ing that it is all done in the sacred name of Christ ? Who 
can read or behold such things without a sense of the 
deepest sorrow and shame? 

Christ has not given the commission to go into all the 
world and amuse and entertain people. But He has 
bidden His followers go into all the world and preach 
the gospel to every creature. And when pastors and 
people turn to giving shows and entertainments, that 
very thing advertises their lack of gospel power. Christ 
never lacked people to listen to Him, and those who fol- 
low His divine methods will also meet with His success. 



MAINTAINING FOEM BUT DENYING POWEE 215' 

God's power is just as great now as it was on the 
day of Pentecost, when the people were drawn to hear 
the preaching of the simple gospel, not by shows and 
sensational parade, not by the thought of fun and very 
questionable amusements, but by the Spirit of the living 
Saviour. That power is waiting still for all who will re- 
ceive it. How can we more effectually deny the power of 
God than by resorting to amusements to draw people to 
the church? How sad that the church should be so 
blinded as to be willing to change the experiences and 
realities of Pentecost for the modern church fair and 
theatrical display! 

There are many who realize the situation, to some ex- 
tent at least, and are crying out against this terrible con- 
dition into which the church of Christ has fallen. Pages 
of testimony might be given from these, but only a few 
paragraphs are necessary. 

Eev. Walter A. Evans says: 

" Evangelical Christianity, born anew in the German 
Reformation, baptized under the hands of the Puritans 
and the Wesleys, has already so far apostatized that an- 
other reformation is needed. . . . The cold formal- 
ism of a utilitarian religiousness, ornate with pomp and 
ceremony, makes of the church of the present day, to a 
very large degree, a valley of dry bones greater than 
that which Ezekiel saw, and as sorely in need of a 
divine afflatus to give it life. Social discontent, born of 
pinching poverty on the one hand and riotous riches on 
the other, gambling, intemperance, commercial dishonor, 
political corruption, and the whole pestiferous brood of 
evils which prey upon the nation and threaten its peace 
if not its perpetuity as a free republic — they all find 



216 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

their coveted opportunity, when they do not find their 
abetment, in the worldly ideals, the grasping covetous- 
ness, the denominational pride, the sectarian selfishness, 
the moral cowardice, and the spiritual apathy of the 
church. . . . 

"Why is it that there are so many lodges to every 
church, and that so large a part of the humanitarian and 
reformatory forces that make for human weal in the 
present life are centering outside of the church? Why 
is it that, as every minister of the gospel knows is the 
case, so large and increasing a body of noble, honorable 
and high-minded men of every community, men who 
fear God and revere Jesus Christ, are standing studiously 
aloof from the church? . . . 

"But some one will exclaim: 'Our organizations! 
Look at our new organizations, millions strong!' To 
which one might fittingly reply in the words of . . . 
Mr. B. Fay Mills, 'They are very deceiving.' Or one 
might, by way of amplification, say that multiplication 
of organizations within the church, wisely constructed to 
fit the social instincts of youthful human nature, colossal 
conventions worked up systematically after the most ap- 
proved methods of a political canvass for twelve months 
previous — they may cause a great buzzing of wheels and 
rattle of machinery that look much like spiritual vigor. 
But all this machinery, while it can use power, can not 
generate it. It can neither repair a defective boiler nor 
replenish a furnace, the real trouble with which is that 
the fire is going out. The adding of another wheel to the 
machinery does not increase the power. Nay, is not this 
unprecedented multiplication of organizations itself a 
striking sign of weakness and spiritual degeneration? 



MAINTAINING FORM BUT DENYING POWER 217 

May it not be, after all, an attempt to brace a man on 
his feet by artificial means, when the fact is he is suf- 
fering from heart-failure? What is the matter with 
the old bottle that it won't hold wine? The church of 
the apostles, the Puritans, and the early Methodists 
turned the world upside down — not by organization, for 
they had practically none, but by the irresistible power 
of deep moral conviction, unquestioning faith, and a 
spiritual unction that was the outcropping of a new and 
divine life. But to-day, instead of one chasing a thou- 
sand and two putting ten thousand to flight, it takes a 
thousand church-members to chase one evil, and then 
they don't catch it — unless there 4s something in it.' . . . 

"The church is made the decoy of the hunters of for- 
tunes ; it is utilized as a screen of scoundrels. . . . Yea, 
it has become a great tree, and respectable sinners — re- 
spectability is a sine qua non — legal robbers, and pious 
frauds lodge under the shadow of it. . . . One can 
not single out any one denomination as being especially 
guilty of exalting pelf above piety. The same conditions 
widely prevail, and one is probably as bad as another." 

How pleasing it would be if we could truly say that 
the statements of Mr. Evans were overdrawn! But every 
one who thinks, knows that what he says in the foregoing 
paragraphs is only too literally true. Do we not see that 
the church is rapidly being filled with all the iniquities 
mentioned by the apostle, and that it is in reality rap- 
idly reaching the place where it holds only "a form of 
godliness," while " denying the power thereof"? God 
has told us what would take place in the last days, and 
we see it now right before our eyes. 



218 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



419.850,000, 



EAST INDIAN 
315,481,000 



In this connection it might be well to call attention 
to what " Christian America" is spending for strong 
drink, tobacco, tea and coffee, and other hurtful and 
useless indulgencies, and set this over against what is 
Chinese y^i?) being done to give the gospel to the 
world. The illustrations and statistics 
on these pages show the situation very 
forcibly and truthfully. 

What an opportunity the 
church is losing! Social dis- 
content, arising from va- 
rious causes, is looming up 
on every hand; and instead 
of the church standing 
unmoved amid the gath- 
ering storm as a beacon- 

af*ic^ ttg 11 * and g uide in 
" the way of right- 
eousness, we see her 
shorn of her 

ASIATIC 

297,000 strength. 

The illustrations and fig- 
ures on this page show the 
task the Christian world 
_ ___ must accomplish 
•k^EEf&n in heathen lands 
alone if it is to 
bring everybody 
to Christ and 
have a Millenni- 
um in 
MM 3Seoo which 
all will 
be con- 
verted. 




950,000 




MAINTAINING FORM BUT DENYING POWER 



WHISKEY, 



How appalling the thought! The wond is 
acknowledged by thousands of the most thought- 
ful men and women of our time to be speed- tobacco 
ing on to an awful revolution, bidding fair 
to outdo the French Reign of Terror; army&navy 

. . ; EXPENDITURES 

and in the face of this crisis, the church, 
instead of being awake and active in 
rescuing the perishing and warn- 
ing the ignorant, is filled with those 
who are " lovers of pleasures more 
than lovers of God," having only 



The diagrams and figures on this page show 
how the great leading "Christian America'" 
spending her money and her energies. Other 
"Christian nations" are following her example in 
much the same proportion. America spends more 
for chewing-gum than for missions ; and 
when it comes to the vice-laden and C offee 
soul-destroying item of strong drink, 
how insignificant does the small amount 
spent for missions appear! The ex- 
penditure of money for alcoholic drinks, 
and tobacco is lowering the morals of 
the world and filling it with vices and 
crimes. The facts are insup- DATFI<J _ 
erable and should be convin- Medicine 
cing. The gospel of Christ will 
be carried to all the nations for 
a witness to every one, as the 
promise of the Master already 
quoted in these pages amply 
shows. But all the 
facts agree with the ORNAMENTAL 
other scripture state- jewelry 
ments in showing 
that the vast major- 
ity will prefer to cling 
to their vices and 
bacchanal revelries, 
and so will 
refuse to be DRUGS 
moved by 




220 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

"a form of godliness," while by indulgence in sin they 
are " denying the power thereof." With these facts before 
us, how forcible the prophetic interrogation, "Neverthe- 
less, when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith 
on the earth?" And is it any wonder that our Lord, when 
viewing this time, said, "Because iniquity shall abound, 
the love of many shall w T ax cold"? 

Any one who is candid with himself must admit, in 
the moments of his soberest reflection, that the world is 
indeed in a terrible condition, and that the church, taken 
as a whole, instead of being awake to the situation, is 
wasting its time in childish amusement and selfish folly. 
When the faces of the bravest men are growing pale be- 
fore the conditions in which our world is floundering, 
instead of being able to tell them that we have reached 
the death throes of this reign of sin, and raising the 
warning note, "Escape for thy life," the pleasure-loving 
professor is dreamily sounding the sleepy notes of "peace 
and safety." And how natural that it should be so with 
one who has only a "form of godliness"! The voice of 
God, speaking to the very soul, is endeavoring to awaken 
the conscience to a correct appreciation of the situation. 
But, being "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of 
God," they cling to the "form of godliness," and quiet 
the disturbed conscience by saying, "Peace, peace, when 
there is no peace." But do not forget that the Lord, 
when speaking of this time, has said, "When they shall 
say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh 
upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and 
they shall not escape." 1 Thess. 5:3. 

It is a cheering thought, however, that, notwithstand- 
ing all the efforts of Satan to drown the whole church 



MAINTAINING FORM BUT DENYING POWER 221 

in pleasure and sin in these last clays, the Lord still has 
some in every communion who have not given their hearts 
to the service of Baal; and by these the voice of warning 
must be given. Fearful odds, should we take our view 
from the human standpoint, will have to be met ; but, 
with the voice of a conqueror, our great Leader says, "All 
power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth ;" and, 
trusting in His omnipotent strength in this time of great- 
est peril, "we must gather warmth from the coldness of 
others, courage from their cowardice, and loyalty from 
their treason." 

There are souls everywhere who are crying out for 
the living God, and they are perplexed by the distressing 
condition of things that they see around them. Reader, 
will you not act as a light-bearer for God, and assist in 
pointing all such to that sure word that so unmistakably 
shows all these things to be the tokens by which we may 
know that "He is near, even at the doors"? Let all 
the world know of His love, and that He is now earnestly 
inviting every one to accept the wedding garment, His 
own perfect righteousness, and thus be made ready to 
enter into the eternal bliss of the redeemed. 

But to do this great work of showing mankind where 
we are standing, and of telling them the meaning of the 
portents of this time, it is necessary to be more than 
mere professors of Christianity. We must be such de- 
voted students of the word of God that we will know its 
prophecies and precepts for ourselves, and be able to point 
with the assurance of definite knowledge to the light that 
is shining for us from the sacred Book. Any ordinary, 
dreamy exj>erience that is half of the world and the other 
half made up of only a profession of the Christianity of 



222 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

the Christ, can never do in such a time as this. There is 
a work to be done in rescuing the church itself from the 
stupor into which it has fallen that requires the heroism 
of faith and Bible power. It will not do to leave it to 
the minister alone to become the Bible student and the 
Bible scholar. Every individual must now throw his sec- 
tarian differences to the winds, and give himself to the 
study of the Bible so that he may be sure to stand on 
the solid rock of divine principle that is born only of 
a knowledge of divine truth; and then, with the heart 
made pure and courageous by this heaven-appointed pro- 
cess, we should go forth to do valiant work in arousing 
as many as can be reached. It is no time for theological 
speculation in regard to these things. The great facts of 
this time are staring us in the face, and we should ac- 
knowledge the literal truth of what we actually see, and 
let our labors be according to the pressing needs of the 
hour. If we see whole platoons of church-members giv- 
ing themselves to the follies of the world — yes; if, even 
worse than that, we behold in them the entire train of 
vices and crimes that characterize this time, we should not 
surrender to the spirit of critical faultfinding that can 
do them no good. This faultfinding criticism of the mem- 
bers of the church can not help them, and only breeds 
infidelity in ourselves as well as in them that hear us. 
But if we know from the word of God what it all means ; 
if we can point to this apostasy in the face of the great 
light of this age as one of the sure fulfilments of prophecy, 
the dignity and power of heaven's great truth is allowed 
to shine out, and the soul may be reached. 

God wants men in this time who can see beyond the 
evils that have taken possession of the church as well 



MAINTAINING FORM BUT DENYING POWER 223 

as the world. He wants men who can set on high the 
blazing light of prophecy to show the meaning of this 
darkness. He wants men who are too intent on the work 
of reviving the sickly church to find any place for the 
sneering criticism. The whole world is trembling before 
its doom, and the church which God has appointed as 
His agency to rescue the perishing must be warned of 
the dangerous and traitorous position which it is taking 
to such an alarming extent. 

And not only must both the lukewarm church and the 
turbulent world be warned of the doom of the ungodly, 
but they must both be told of the indescribable and ines- 
timable reward that will soon be given to the righteous. 
The bright joys of an eternity of perfect happiness and 
contentment that the Lord of heaven holds above the un- 
satisfying conditions of this world, must be clearly and 
strongly pointed out. There is work to be done for God 
now that should call forth the best endeavor that mor- 
tals can give. 





URE 



11 



CHAPTER TWENTY 




\N the preceding chapter some attention has been 
given to the scripture which shows that a love of 
pleasure under a "form of godliness" is one of the 
producing causes of peril in the last days. But the sub- 
ject deserves more particular consideration; for it is the 
corrupting influences in the world beneath that are used 
to bring the church down from her proper sphere of holi- 
ness. When in any particular age- the church becomes 
corrupt, it is because of her failure to resist the prevail- 
ing sins and vices of that time. 

So, then, since the love of pleasure among those who 
have a "form of godliness" will do its part in making 
times perilous in this age, what a great, prevailing pas- 
sion for the follies of mere fun will be manifested in the 
world at large! It is true that humanity has ever been 
given to the pursuit of pleasure. It is natural and God- 
given for men to wish to enjoy themselves. It has always 
been the case that a great many will look no higher than 
the follies of transient and debasing amusements; but in 

224 



LOVERS OF PLEASURE 225 

a special sense will the world be given to pleasure at 
the close of time. Marvelous indeed are the great in- 
ventions and the general material progress of this age* 
and the extent to which the people of to-day are given 
to fun and pleasure is no less conspicuous. 

Speaking of the days that immediately precede His 
coming, the Master says : ' ' Take heed to yourselves, lest at 
any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and 
drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come 
upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all 
them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch 
ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted 
worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, 
and to stand before the Son of man." Luke 21:34-36. 

Words of warning are directed against "surfeiting" 
(which is another word for overeating) and " drunken- 
ness." The same evil is spoken against in Matthew, as 
follows : 

"But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, 
My lord delayeth his- coming; and shall begin to smite 
his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken ; 
the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he 
looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware 
of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his 
portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and 
gnashing of teeth." Matt. 24:48-51. 

Feasting and strong drink are two of the most con- 
stant companions of worldly pleasure, and the Lord has 
taken pains to warn us against these evils. The Father 
in heaven, who "so loved the world, that He .gave His 
only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life," seeks to lead men 



226 HERALDS OF THE MOBNItfG 

to genuine pleasure and real enjoyment; but among the 
special snares of the evil one, prepared for the last days, 
is the intoxication of illusory pleasures and sensual grati- 
fications, so that men may not discern those things that 
are for their eternal interest. 

Intemperance is one of the greatest evils of our day, 
and this has been the generation of temperance agitation. 
A great work has indeed been accomplished. The change 
in sentiment toward the drink question is truly miracu- 
lous. Had it not been for this, it is hard to tell how 
much more terrible the condition of the world would be 
at the present time. Yet in the face of this great wave 
of temperance reform, every one knows the control that 
the saloon has of politics. Elections are influenced, and 
legislatures and city councils are under t_:e domination 
of the dealers in strong drink. 

Some of our temperance reformers have made most 
startling exposures respecting the complete control the 
liquor traffic has gained in many of the oldest and most 
influential colleges in the land. In this way the liquor 
dealers are educating the young men and women, who 
are in turn to be educators in the most influential posi- 
tions in society, to look upon the use of strong drink 
as most proper and genteel. What far-sighted cunning 
is here displayed! 

The liquor traffic controls large sums of money, and 
requires a large army of over half a million men in the 
United States alone ; and every one of them is a politician. 
Whoever expects to be elected to office must reckon with 
these dispensers of strong drink, and also with the great 
host of men in the slums and elsewhere who are to so 
great an extent under their control. The better element 



LOVERS OF PLEASURE 227 

of society has been appealed to again and again to rise 
np against this corruption, and put men in office who 
were wholly upright; but these upright citizens do not 
come forward, and the corrupting influences of the saloon 
are growing stronger every day. 

Reference to the illustrations and facts given on pages 
218 and 219, suffice to bring the condition fully before the 
reader, and so it is not necessary to make more extended 
mention of the subject. When we view the situation as 
it is before our eyes to-day, is it any marvel that the 
Master should have left us the warning, "Take heed to 
yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged 
with surfeiting, and drunkenness'"? 

Running after pleasure requires that a great deal of 
time be spent in idleness; and when people are idling 
away their time in amusements, there comes the great 
temptation of drinking and gluttonous feasting. Then 
along with these evils is that other ruinous and debasing 
practise of gambling. Men want money to use in pleasure- 
seeking; and as they do not wish to take the time to 
work for it honestly, they resort to the races and games 
of chance. The horse-race, and many more of the great 
train of pleasure-making devices, are used by the gambler 
to secure money without toil. This is recognized not 
only as an evil, but a veritable craze. It is by no means 
confined to men, nor to any one country; for women, and 
even children, all over the world, are participants in some 
way in these numerous schemes for securing money by 
chance. Boards of trade manipulate and gamble in wheat, 
corn, and other grains; the cotton exchanges make similar 
speculations in other products of the farm; and the stock 



228 heralds of the morning 

exchange places its stakes on the rise and fall of stocks, 
bonds, etc. 

Members of churches, and men of influence and stand- 
ing in society and in the political field, take their chances 
on the board of trade or the stock exchange; the pro- 
fessed church itself conducts " fairs," "raffles," and other 
forms of church lotteries ; and with this influence at work 
in the higher circles, it is perfectly natural that gambling 
should have become such a craze in these times. 

It is interesting to note how the promoters of these 
various schemes for pleasure are trying to cover them 
with a cloak of respectable philanthropy. For instance, 
here is some worthy charitable institution in need of 
funds, and the managers of a race-track propose to raise 
five thousand dollars or more by giving a day's receipts 
at the gates. Of course everybody is urged to attend, 
"because this is in the interest of charity and humanity." 
An opera company proposes to play for a night in behalf 
of some worthy object, and every one is again urged to 
attend, "for," it is persuasively emphasized, "you can 
have a lot of fun, and then just think that you will be 
helping the needy at the same time." 

It is to the interest of the dispensers of amusements 
to make their races, games, and plays popular.. It will 
not do to have the more conscientious part of society look 
upon them questioningly ; and they must be credited with 
long-headed foresight in the course they are pursuing, no 
matter what opposite attribute is suggested as belonging 
to those who deliberately walk into such manifest beguile- 
ments. 

No attempt is being made to present statistics or other 
facts to bring before the reader the pleasure-loving craze 



LOVERS OF PLEASURE 229 

of this age. His mind is doubtless running with light- 
ning speed, in noting the races, the games, the operas, 
the ballrooms, and all the rest of the devices after which 
the crowds are flocking for fun. It is superfluous to 
go into detail to present evidence when it is standing in 
colossal proportions all around us. There are some who 
find their greatest happiness in the solid business, joys, 
and work of life; but the great mass want fun, and still 
more and more fun. 

Every day the papers are telling of the suicides that 
grow out of the disappointments that come in this field 
of pleasure-seeking. Men and women who are given to 
the glittering sensualities of feasting and drinking, meet 
with some sudden reverse. They have been in such a 
hilarious state of pleasure-seeking that they can not 
endure the disappointment, and so their life is taken- 
It is also a sad fact that many murders are committed 
in order that some further pleasure may be realized. 

The professed church, even, has caught the craze for 
fun. When it is desired to raise money for church pur- 
poses, some entertainment is arranged to draw the people 
to spend their money for "pleasure" and "charity." And, 
as was shown in a previous chapter, things that could 
only be appropriate on the theatrical stage, have been 
brought upon the sacred rostrum, and given the sanction 
of the church that professes the name of the holy Son 
of God. When the bulwarks that the church should pre- 
sent against this evil are thus broken down, the world 
plunges still deeper into its follies; for instead of the 
church being a barrier against this growing passion for 
questionable pleasure, it has turned right about face, and 
has become a positive influence in its favor. 



230 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



Tims we see that Satan lias set the whole world fairly 
wild in running after pleasures — not the pleasures that 
build up, and educate, and refine, and ennoble, but pleas- 
ures that intoxicate the mind with an insatiable desire 
for sensuous gratification and exciting sport. Both the 
world and many in the nominal churches have been 
dragged into it The Saviour has warned us against this 
scheme of the evil one, by which he seeks so completely 
to charm the world with illusory pleasures that they will 
not discern the portentous issues of our day and gen- 
eration. And He has given us the promise: "When 
Pie putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, 
and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice. 
And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from 
him: for they know not the voice of strangers." John 
10:4, 5. 




■mm 

z mmtimiwm 



Q^MMMeL 




CHAPTER 
TWENTY-ONE 



EFERENCE lias already 
been made to the apostle 
Paul's statement that 
"in the last days perilous times shall come. For [or 
because] men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous," 
etc. 2 Tim. 3:1, 2. "Men shall be lovers of their own 
selves, covetous;" and because of these evils, in connection 
with other sins, the last days are made "perilous." 

Persons who are completely filled with self-love, caring 
nothing for others only as a means of gratifying and 
pleasing themselves, are a very dangerous class. If they 
fancy that their personal pleasure would be increased 
by the destruction or violent taking away of the property 
of others, they do not scruple to do it. If to accom- 
plish their desires it seems advantageous to take the life 
of a fellow creature, they wait only to assure themselves 
that they can accomplish the deed without being caught, 
and then proceed to the execution of the fearful crime. 
In short, it makes no difference to those who are wholly 
given to the worship and gratification of self, how much 
sorrow and pain they cause others. Neither hunger, 
cold, nor any or all of the worst forms of suffering, seem 

231 



232 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

to touch them. They are living only for self, and the 
distress of others is of little moment to them. 

The reader is ■ familiar with the Scripture statement, 
"As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in 
the days of the Son of man." Luke 17:26. He also 
knows that the Bible tells us, in describing the sins of 
Noah's time, that "God saw that the wickedness of man 
was great in the earth, and that every imagination of 
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." 
"And the earth was filled with violence." Gen. 6:5, 11. 

Now, just as surely as these scriptures are true, just 
so surely may we know that in the last days, as in 
Noah's time, "violence" and great wickedness — so great 
that "every imagination" will be devoted to evil — will 
be prevalent among mankind. With the picture of this 
great wickedness of Noah's time before the mind, it 
must be very evident that the self-love, the covetousness, 
that make the last days "perilous," is the very worst 
that Satan can produce. Is it any wonder that the 
apostle, in such emphatic language, tells us that "in the 
last days perilous times shall come"? For the seeds of 
"self-love" and "covetousness" planted in a heart where 
"every imagination" is "only evil continually," must 
produce a fearful harvest. 

In the very nature of things, men who are thus 
"lovers of their own selves, covetous," will grasp for 
everything they can get hold of. Since "every imagina- 
tion" is "only evil continually," they will not be at all 
particular about the honesty of their methods in securing 
the objects of their covetous hearts. The stronger ones, 
and those who by some chance are thrown into positions 
of advantage, will override the weak; and some will thus, 



YE HAVE HEAPED TBEASTTRE 233 

through selfish greed and covetousness, amass colossal for- 
tunes to be used in wanton pleasure, while others will 
be mercilessly ground down by abject poverty. 

The apostle James makes this clear beyond a single 
doubt. He says : ' ' Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl 
for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches 
are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your 
gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall 
be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it 
were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the 
last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have 
reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by 
fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped 
are entered into the ears of the- .Lord of Sabaoth. Ye 
have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; 
ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. 
Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth 
not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the 
coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth 
for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long 
patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 
Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming 
6f the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against an- 
other, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the Judge 
standeth before the door." James 5:1-9. 

Speaking to the" rich men, this text declares, "Ye have 
heaped treasure together for the last days." This self- 
loving, " covetous" age is marked by the heaping together 
of treasure, and none should fail to note that it is 
"heaped" together "for the last days." 

The reader is well aware of the fact that there is 
no subject to-day more widely discussed than the "rela- 



234 HERALES C7 THU ZldlNIXG 

tion of capital to labor." The unprecedented fortunes 
of the great trusts, and what to do to curb and control 
them, have become the main issues in our political cam- 
paigns, and are very generally discussed between times. 
And why all this discussion? — It is because colossal for- 
tunes have been grasped and are in the hands of a few, 
while the great multitude is battling for the necessities 
of life. Every one knows that this statement is a literal 
truth; furthermore, the capitalist has taught the world 
the advantages of combining to crush out competition, and 
thus make great fortunes in a few years. So the thinking 
laboring man says: "Why not let us combine, too, and 
get our share of this wealth?" "Why not form 'trade 
unions/ fix a price on our commodity of labor, and com- 
pel the capitalist to pay it?" And because of the self- 
love and covetousness that God has foretold would char- 
acterize these last days, there is brought into this struggle 
between capital and labor a conflict that is becoming more 
and more intense and perplexing. 

Mankind, when not influenced by the spirit of the 
Nazarene, has ever been inclined to amass large fortunes, 
and hoard them in a miserly way, or spend them in selfish 
pleasure. From time to time in the history of the past, 
whole nations have become so corrupted through the wealth 
which a few could control that they have gone down amid 
the strife of their internal revolutions. James. Anthony 
Froude, A.M., says of Rome in the days of Caesar: 

"The intellect was trained to the highest point which 
it could reach; and on the great subjects of human in- 
terest, on morals and politics, on poetry and art, even 
on religion itself and the speculative problems of life, 
men thought as we think, doubted as we doubt, argued as 



YE HAVE HEAPED TREASURE 235 

we argue, aspired and struggled after the same objects. 
It was an age of material progress, material civilization, 
and intellectual culture; an age of pamphlets and epi- 
grams, of salons and dinner parties, of senatorial ma- 
jorities and electoral corruption. The highest offices in 
the state were open, in theory, to the meanest citizen; 
they were confined, in fact, to those who had the longest 
purses or the most ready use of the tongue on popular 
platforms. Distinction of birth had been exchanged for 
distinction of wealth. The struggles between plebeians 
and patricians for equality of privilege were over, and 
a new division had been formed between the party of 
property and the party who desired a change in the 
structure of society. The free cultivators were disappear- 
ing from the soil. Italy was being absorbed into vast 
estates, held by a few favored families, and cultivated 
by slaves, while the old agricultural population was driven 
off the land, and was crowded into towns. The rich were 
extravagant, for life had ceased to have practical inter- 
ests, except for its material pleasures ; the occupation of 
the high classes was to obtain money without labor, and 
to spend it in idle enjoyment/' — Caesar, page 6. 

The foregoing reads identically with the descriptions 
of present-clay conditions. And it was not long after 
Lome reached that state until she was rapidly traveling 
down th£ broad highway of her " decline and fall." His- 
toiy is continually repeating itself. These facts should 
cause men to think seriously. 

When Rome was in the condition described by Mr. 
Froude there were numerous tribes to the north, who, 
while being considered by the Komans to be mere bar- 
barians, were nevertheless much more honorable and 



236 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



upright. The corrup- 
tions of Rome had not 
debased them ; and these 
modern tribes con- 
quered her, and by 
breaking her territory 
up into what are prac- 
tically the nations of 
Europe to-day, de- 
stroyed her large for- 
tunes, and dissipated 
her corruptions. Thus 
a new civilization upon 
a new basis was begun. 
But the same spirit that 
was among the Romans, 
which led certain men 
more favored than their 
fellows to control all 
the wealth, continued 
to work among the new 
nations founded on the 
ruins of the old empire ; 
and, during the long 
course of the centuries, 
in all the nations of the Old World, a few families 
have been seeking to hold the wealth and the consequent 
power that money gives. There have been revolts against 
the oppressions of this so-called nobility, the most marked 
being the French Revolution. During the Middle Ages 
the great mass of the people were kept in such ignorance 




An alley of poverty, Chicago. 



YE HAVE HEAPED TREASURE 



237 



and superstition that their revolts lacked the intelligent 
leadership necessary to make them effective. 

But when we begin to approach the intelligence of 
the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth cen- 
turies, a new continent engages the attention of Europe, 
and so the revolutions that otherwise must have become 
general long before this time, were held in abeyance by 
the interest manifested in peopling and developing the 
New World. America has long been the asylum to which 
the oppressed and discontented have been welcomed, and 
freedom and advancement in this country have been a 
constant object-lesson to the nations of the eastern hemi- 
sphere; and who can tell the molding influence that our 
free institutions have had in bringing a greater degree 
of freedom to some of the 
nations of Europe during ; 
the last hundred years 
when America, "the h 
the free and the home 
brave," the " asylum f 
downtrodden and u: 
fortunate, ' ' herself 
becomes as corrupt 
as the nations of 
the Old World, 
where, on the face 
of all the earth, is 
there a "city of refuge 
In the history of all 
God has borne with nations until 
they became wholly given over to evil, and then, as 
the most merciful, yes, in fact, the only thing He could 




Lodging-house for the poor. 



238 HEKALDS OF THE MORNtNTG 

do, lias given them up to destruction. When, in Noah's 
time, the whole world became "only evil," He destroyed 
all the evil people by the flood. We have produced abun- 
dant testimony to show that in the last days, the same 
as in the world before the flood, the "earth" will be 
"filled with violence"; hence the only remedy will be 
for Christ to come, and take the upright to Himself, and 
consign the rest to the destruction they have chosen by 
clinging to their sins. 

"In 1833," says Eobert N. Eeeves, "when Tocqueville 
visited America, he was struck by the equal distribution 
of wealth and the absence of capitalists. Half a century 
later, when James Bryce, author of "The American Com- 
monwealth,' visited our country, the trusts, monopolies, 
and concentrated wealth so amazed him that he exclaimed, 
'I see the shadows of a new structure of society — an aris- 
tocracy of riches.' " 

In this country there were no great fortunes fifty or 
sixty years ago. The people were living contentedly, and 
the heated discussions of capital and labor that we hear 
now on every street corner, and read in our papers all 
over the land, were hardly dreamed of. The same writer 
further says: 

"Never in the history of our country were the people 
confronted with greater social problems than they are 
to-day. The strikes, boycotts, and general discontent of 
late years prove conclusively that there is yet much room 
for improvement in our social order. . . . Every ob- 
servant person must admit that the great concentration 
of wealth, whether it be in corporations, trusts, or indi- 
viduals, has reached a point dangerous to the future pros- 
perity of the nation. . . . The Probate Court records 



YE HAVE HEAPED TREASURE 239 

of the various states disclose the fact that millionaires 
are becoming more numerous, while the smaller property 
owners are gradually sinking into the multitude of people 
possessing nothing. . . . 

"This power of wealth is the greatest danger that has 
threatened our country since the Civil War, and against 
it we must constantly be on our guard." 

It is not Mr. Eeeves only, but thousands of men and 
women all over the country, who are speaking after the 
same order, only many of them express themselves much 
more strongly. With the facts before them in regard to 
the vast fortunes on the one hand, and the great desti- 
tution and consequent growing indication of turbulence 
on the other, and without giving attention to the guiding 
light of the prophecy that shows what all this means, is 
it any wonder that strong denunciations should be made 
against these men of vast wealth, and that by so many 
the future should be looked upon with forebodings? 

In 1889 Mr. Thomas Gr. Shearman published an article 
in the Forum entitled "Owners of the United States," in 
which he made the statement, upon evidence, that seventy 
of the wealthiest men of the country had a combined capi- 
tal of about $2,700,000,000. But that was in the days 
when both wealthy individuals and wealthy corporations 
worked independently, and usually were in competition 
with each other. But some of the great "princes of 
finance" conceived the idea of forming "trusts" or com- 
bines that would bring these fortunes together for the 
purpose of shutting out competition. And by 1898 the 
"trust idea" was in full swing. 

Previous to that time, there were many individuals, as 
well as many great corporations, that had come to possess 



240 HEEALDS OF THE MOENING 

tens and even hundreds of millions, and there had been 
discussions of the advisability of forming " trusts" to com- 
bine these fortunes so that their power could be exerted 
unitedly. But 1898 set the avalanche in motion. In that 
one year the trusts combined $1,000,000,000 of the capital 
of the country into great organizations that were to sweep 
aside or ruthlessly break to pieces every form of com- 
petition. This was considered enormous and most start- 
ling at the time. The pulpit and the press everywhere 
fell to discussing it and giving warnings as to what was 
most likely to be the outcome of it all. In the three 
years following, no less than 142 of these industrial com- 
binations or trusts were formed. And with the combi- 
ning process fairly started, the billion dollars drawn into 
the trusts in 1898 had grown by Jan. 1, 1904, to the enor- 
mous figure of $20,379,162,511; and on Jan. 1, 1908, it 
had reached $31,672,160,754. Into this big combine no 
less than 10,000 independent industrial plants, corpora- 
tions, and lines of business have been merged. The high- 
est estimate places the value of all the property of the 
entire nation at one hundred twenty billion dollars. And 
thus it will be seen that fully one fourth of the wealth 
of the entire nation had passed in 1908 into the hands of 
the trusts, and the next step for them is to use their ac- 
quired power to gain control of the other three fourths/ 
This word "control" came to be a great feature in 
the work of the moneyed men in Wall Street. For as a 
few of them had gained such great possessions of their 
own, they must combine to "control" the rest, else other 
organizations might be formed that would break their 
power and dissolve their unprecedented hoards. Hence 



YE HAVE HEAPED T3EASUKE 241 

to "control" what they could not own became the next 
great line of attack in the war for money supremacy. 

A study of the published lists of the boards of directors 
of 1908 will show that less than one hundred men were 
the active controllers of all that vast combine that aggre- 
gated a fourth of the. nation's wealth. And now they apply 
themselves vigorously to the single task of creating one 
central combine that will monopolize and "control" all 
other monopolies — a combine of combines, a monopoly of 
monopolies. 

It was easy for them to see that this could be accom- 
plished by getting control of the actual cash, the gold of 
the nation. For if they hold the gold in their coffers, 
they can dictate the policy and prescribe the prices that 
shall govern the corporations which they do not actually 
own. Hence there must be formed a great central banking 
power in Wall Street; and through its various agencies, 
particularly the big corporations that are a part of the 
mighty combine, it must gather sufficient gold into its 
vaults to hold the "control" of everything in the nation. 
Every great corporation that has to borrow large sums 
of money must be made to come to Wall Street. If 
national loans are to be negotiated, Wall Street must be 
the dictator. 

In getting this concentration of gold, there must be 

a further centralization of power in the hands of fewer 

men. And when we reach the beginning of 1912 we find 

seven men who have the control; and of the seven, one 

may properly be styled the emperor of the "invisible 

empire" of wealth. This emperor of money and wealth 

has more power than any king, president, or other ruler 

who sways a scepter in any civil state in all the world. 
16 



242 HEKALDS OF THE MORNING 

For in one of the very recent quarrels between some 
of the nations in Europe it was necessary for one of 
them to get a large loan in order to go to war. The 
ruler appealed to his bankers, but they were so tied up 
that they would do nothing without getting the coopera- 
tion of the emperor of gold in this nation. He would 
not consent to the loan, and hence the war had to be 
abandoned. 

Let us do this emperor of gold the justice to say that 
in this particular instance, by preventing the war, he was 
an international benefactor. And, furthermore, let us be 
sufficiently true to the facts to observe that since it is the 
one ambition of his life to heap together treasure, he 
probably concluded that it would not pay to make that 
particular loan. And let it be further observed that this 
instance is only one among many that show that the cen- 
tralization of money which has been such a feature in this 
nation is really international. This emperor of gold is 
not merely a national character, but his domain is the 
world. 

Thirty years ago the cash holdings in Wall Street were 
only about eleven million dollars, and that was considered 
a vast sum of money in that time. But at the beginning 
of 1912 these seven great financiers, the emperor of gold 
and his cabinet of six, held under their control a round 
billion in money, an increase of cash concentration of over 
ninetyfold, and this concentration is still further aug- 
mented by the fewer men 'who now hold it. 

All the industries of the country have passed under 
their hands. They control the railroads, telegraphs, cables, 
telephones, mining, iron and steel, coal, gas, electric light, 
oil, cotton, copper, sugar, and the rest of the products of 
the nation. 



YE HAVE HEAPED TREASUKE 243 

The Wall Street Journal is a great financial organ 
of the country. In 1903 this journal had a number of 
editorials pointing out the dangers occasioned by the 
combination that was even then being formed amon^ the 
big banks, New York, of course, being in the lead. One 
of these editorials was headed, "Perils of the Money 
Trust," and the following quotation from it is worthy 
of the most careful thought: 

"What is taking place is a concentration of banking 
that is not merely a normal growth, but a concentration 
that comes from combination, consolidation, and other 
methods employed to secure monopolistic power. Not 
only this, but this concentration has not been along the 
lines of commercial banking. The great banks of con- 
centration are in close alliance with financial interests 
intimately connected with promotion of immense enter- 
prises, many of them being largely speculative. The 
bank credits of the country are being rapidly concen- 
trated in the hands of a few bankers who are more in- 
terested in banking on its financial [watered stock] side 
than in banking on its commercial side. 

"Such concentration as this is dangerous in a political 
sense. The people have already been greatly disturbed 
by the concentration that has taken place in the indus- 
trial world. . . . But concentration in the industrial 
world is a far less menacing condition than concentra- 
tion in banking . The men or set of men tvho control 
the credits of the country control the country. 

"And if this concentration continues at the rapid rate 
with which it has progressed in the past ten years, there 
will surely come a time when the people, alarmed at the 
growth, will rise up in some vigorous measure to assert 



244 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

their power. Such an uprising would involve the most 
serious consequences and would likely be carried to the 
most unreasonable limits. There can be no doubt that 
further concentration of banking power in New York is 
the end in view of some of our leading bankers. The} 7 
believe that there will be a further reduction in the num- 
ber of banks and a further increase in the power of the 
big banks. That is one reason why this banking concen- 
tration needs to be studied and its consequences carefully 
weighed. 

c ' But there is still another reason why this development 
in modern banking is open to criticism. It is largely a 
departure from commercial banking. It is turning the 
power over bank credits into financial [stock promotion] 
channels. So long as the country is prosperous, no im- 
mediate danger may be apprehended from such a devel- 
opment as that. . . . But it is always the unexpected 
that happens, and our panics are commonly ushered in 
by some unforeseen calamity, and it is a fair inquiry to 
make whether banking conducted on a ' department-store ' 
principle, with credits concentrated in a few great institu- 
tions, and with these institutions having large interests in 
financial and speculative enterprises, would be in a posi- 
tion in such a moment of unexpected calamity to do more 
than to protect the financial and speculative interests with 
which it is allied. In such a contingency, what protection 
would be left for the great commercial interests of the 
country?" 

The foregoing warning was given by Wall Street's 
great financial periodical in 1903, and the reality came 
in 1907. The great panic of that year struck us in a time 
of unprecedented plenty and prosperity, and when the 



YE HAVE HEAPED TREASURE 245 

banRs showed heavy deposits. The study of that panic 
indicates in a most striking manner the hand of this con- 
centrated control of the money of the nation. But the 
concentration and control of 1912 is far greater than that 
of 1907, and it is increasing right along. What will the 
next panic be like! The " money barons" have the power 
to make prices high or low just as suits them best; they 
have the power to create a money scarcity whenever they 
like; they have the power to override courts and legis- 
latures; the world is in their grasp. 

The statistics given in the foregoing are furnished 
by Mr. John Moody, who is not only friendly to Wall 
Street, but whose writings are consulted hourly by the 
street's speculators. 

The Wall Street Journal is authority for the state- 
ment that one of the railroad trusts made $195,000,000 
during the eight years from 1900 to 1908, and the steel 
trust for the same period made $875,000,000. These fig- 
ures show the enormous profits that accrue to these great 
combines of capital, and the rapidity with which they 
are fulfilling the prophecy by " heaping" together treas- 
ure in these last days. 

This "invisible empire" of wealth is not confined to 
this country by any means, but the same principles are at 
work in the Old World. In the report of the commission 
sent in 1901 by the United States Government to study 
the industrial combinations in Europe, there appears this 
prefatory statement: 

"There is a strong tendency toward the formation of 
industrial combinations everywhere in Europe. In Ger- 
many it is probable that the movement has extended as 
far as in the United States; and that the combinations 



246 HEEALDS OF THE MOKISTHSTG 

there, speaking generally, exert as great power over prices, 
over wages, and in other directions, as they do here." 
— Report of the Industrial Commission, page 7. 

It would be a wearisome as well as useless task to 
try to present anything like a tithe of the great mass of 
evidence that might be given in regard to the "heaping" 
together of treasure. Every one knows that the combines 
of wealth meet us at the very threshold of life, and fol- 
low us all the journey through. At every step they 
ask a tribute on the various necessary things of daily use, 
until finally the portals of the tomb are reached; and 
even there the agent of the undertakers' trust demands 
his fee before our mortal remains are allowed to be laid 
to rest. 

We might naturally expect that when there is such 
an amassing of wealth on the one hand, there would be 
a corresponding amount of destitution on the other. And 
the Scriptures affirm this fact as follows: "Behold, the 
hire of the laborers who have reaped clown your fields, 
which is of you kept back by fraud, % crieth: and the cries 
of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of 
the Lord of Sabaoth." James 5:4. Then capital, in 
these "last days," when men are so "covetous" and such 
"lovers of their own selves," will oppress the laborer so 
that he "crieth" out against it, and it is said that the 

O 7 

"cries" are heard by the Lord. It is not the purpose 
of these pages to discuss either the rights or the wrongs 
of either one of the parties to this capital and labor con- 
troversy. The design is to call attention to the prophecy, 
and to invite every one to consider how literally it is 
being fulfilled in the doings of the day. 

Despite the prosperity that may reign in portions of 



YE HAVE HEAPED TREASURE 247 

the world at different times, there are whole armies of 
people in all the large cities who are continually on the 
verge of destitution, and in many cases the destitution 
is quite complete. But how cheering is the thought that 
in spite of the wickedness and covetousness of this age 
there are thousands of kind and sympathizing hearts and 
hands that are throbbing and working for these unfortu- 
nates! These workers in our city missions are constantly 
finding, amid the destitution there, children six or seven 
years of age with not a single article of clothing upon 
them. Families of four or five persons of both sexes are 
crowded together in one room, sometimes below ground, 
and this room is used for every purpose. There are tene- 
ments in which from one hundred and fifty to two hun- 
dred persons — men, women, and children — are herded 
together like cattle — perhaps it would be more truthful 
to say like hogs — and sleep in heaps upon the landings 
of the stairs and in every other available place. These 
houses are owned by respectable (?) citizens, who are 
not satisfied with less than twenty or thirty per cent 
profit upon their investment. 

Within these filthy premises are the " sweat-shops ' ' of 
our cities, where individuals are paid for their work at 
starvation rates. The untold misery that exists in these 
" sweat-shops " the day of judgment alone can reveal. 
Being able to make only a bare existence, these unfortu- 
nate creatures are compelled to work every moment of 
their time from early morn till late at night; they can 
not stop for sickness or pain, so long as they can force 
their physical machinery to act; and the quarters they 
occupy, any one would recognize as not conducive to 
health. One man was asked to repair the roof over his 



248 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

workmen. It was giving them rheumatism, asthma, and 
consumption. He said, "Men are cheaper than shingles; 
no sooner does one drop out than a dozen are ready to 
take his place." 

Through the Boston Herald the Eev. Everett D. Burr 
gives the result of some of his experiences, as follows: 

"A short time ago I heard of a family in very des- 
titute circumstances. I was told that the father, a steady, 
hard-working man, had been one of the last discharged 
from the cordage factory. I went to the house, and 
found there a family of seven, who hadn't had any- 
thing to eat for eight days except beans, and didn't have 
money to buy even salt. 

"The other day when I went to visit a house, a little 
bit of a girl met me outside the door, and, seeing the 
basket on my arm, asked me if I had anything to eat 
in it; 'for, do you know,' she said pathetically, as she 
laid her hand on a worn little apron, 'I feel awful queer 
there, kind of sore, you know.' 

"And it is the knowledge fathers have of the suffer- 
ing of the children at home that makes it harder for 
them to bear the present state of affairs. Why, men 
come to us after walking the streets all day, sink into 
a chair, and almost cry, telling us they can not go home 
to the children empty-handed." 

Childhood, of all times of life, should be relieved from 
every distressing care and filled up with sunshine and 
joy. But there is no sunshine in the little hearts in 
the "sweat-shops." Sometimes the father makes the 
situation worse by giving up to strong drink; but where 
this is not the case, in these miserable burrowing places 
(they can not be called by that dearest name home), 



YE HAVE HEAPED TREASURE 



249 



not only father and mother have to work all day and 
until late at night, but little children four and five years 
of age, in order to assist in supporting the family, are 
required to work all the weary hours of the long day, 
and the evening too. It is no wonder, under these cir- 
cumstances, that a gentleman who in- ^^ 
cidentally remarked in one of these 
" sweat-shops " that he was forty- 
five years old, was met with - -.' l,_, , 
the serious and deeply pathetic |:JH . M>w»i 
comment of a little girl, ' 
should think any one would 
get tired of living so long!" 
How distressing it seems 
that even in childhood, 
which is usually buoyant 
and happy, every spark of 
joy that makes life worth 
living is thus snuffed out, 
and coming years, instead 
of offering bright anticipa- 
tions, are looked upon with 
" tired" and gloomy fore- 
bodings that are more dismal than the tomb! And 
how much more distressing is the thought that in this 
age of self-love and covetousness, hearts are so icy cold 
that they can press down these poor unfortunates, and 
make their sad lot harder and harder, instead of trying 
to send one ray of sunshine across their dreary pathway! 
While this distressing poverty is exhibiting itself in 
all our great cities, we may be met with such head-lines 
in the papers as those appearing on the next page. We 




"Misery . . . exists m 
these sweat-shops." 



250 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



are also regaled by discussions in the papers of "how 
men may manage to get on with a bare income of only 
$50,000 a year." And some of our great financiers are 
telling us that it is harder for the man with an income 
of $200,000 a year to stand a reduction in his salary 
than it is for the man who is drawing only $12 or $15 
a week. 

Such an occurrence as this is a very striking fulfil- 
ment of that verse already quoted from James's proph- 
ecy, "Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been 

wanton; ye have 
nourished your 
hearts, as in a day 
of slaughter"! 

Truly, as we 
read this proph- 
ecy, we must ac- 
knowledge that in 
prophetic vision 
Jam^s had pre — 
sented to his mind 
a vivid portrayal 
of these " last- 
day ' ' scenes ; for 
while the distress- 
ing "cries" of the 
oppressed laborer 
are still upon the 
prophet's ears, his 
attention is sud- 
denly directed to 
the "wanton" 



LUXURIOUS FEASTS OF 
ANCIENTS OUTDONE 

800 Persons in Attire of Surpassing Magnificence 

Participate in New York's Greatest 

Social Function. 



HOSTESS DECKED IN PRICELESS JEWELS. 



Mrs, 



Led the Quadrille 4 Wearing 



Gems Valued at a Quarter of a 
Million Dollars. 



GREAT CROWDS SURROUND THE WALDORF. 



The most sumptuous, brilliant and costly social function that Nev/ York 
has ever known was the fancy-dress ball given by Mrs. «■ ■ at 

the Waldorf last night. 

About eight hundred people were there, of whom more than four hun- 
dred and fifty were women. The ball placed about SLOO.OOO in circulation. 

The ball began at midnight and ended at 5 o'clock this morning. There- 
fore) Its pleasures cost at the rate of $100,000 an hour. The ccst to the host- 
ess was about $125,000. 

It was a superb spectacle. People came thousands of miles to attend It 



YE HAVE HEAPED TREASURE 251 

"pleasure" of those wlio are "nourishing their hearts, as 
in a clay of slaughter." 

Please read again carefully the first verses of the 
fifth chapter of James, and see how literally they are 
meeting their fulfilment to-day. Men are most truly 
and marvelously "heaping together treasure for the last 
days"; the "cry of the laborer" is waxing louder and 
louder, in some cases, because of his great destitution; 
in other cases, because of his growing discontent; and 
amid it all is the "wanton" "pleasure" of the rich, in- 
dividuals among whom, decked in jewels worth a quarter 
of a million, are dancing at balls which cost a hundred 
thousand dollars an hour. 

Bishop Potter said: "The growth of wealth and of 
luxury, wicked, waste fid, and ivanton, as before God I 
declare that luxury to be, has been matched step by step 
by a deepening and deadening poverty which has left 
whole neighborhoods of people practically without hope 
and without aspiration. At such a time, for the church 
of God to sit still and be content with theories of its duty 
outlawed by time, and long ago demonstrated to be gro- 
tesquely inadequate to the demands of a living situation, 
is to deserve the scorn of men and the curse of God. 
Take my word for it, men and brethren, unless you and 
I, and all those who have any gift or stewardship of 
talents or means, of whatever sort, are willing to get 
up out of our sloth and ease and selfish dilettanteism of 
service, and get down among the people who are battling 
amid their poverty and ignorance — young girls for their 
chastity, young men for their better ideal of righteous- 
ness, old and young alike for one clear ray of the im- 
mortal courage and the immortal hope — then verily the 



252 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

church, in its stately splendor, its apostolic orders, its 
venerable ritual, its decorous and dignified conventions, 
is revealed as simply a monstrous and insolent im- 
pertinence." 

The professed churches of Christ certainly have a 
grave responsibility in this matter; for many of those 
who hold such great wealth make a profession of Chris- 
tianity. And when we consider Him whose whole life 
was spent going about doing good for others; and of 
whom it is said, He "hath not where to lay His head"; 
and of whom it is written, "Though He was rich, yet for 
your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty 
might be rich" — how can we truly be His followers if 
we are found acting in the contrary manner? 

The Word says: "How hardly shall they that have 
riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier 
for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a 
rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Luke 18: 
24, 25. The Lord says further: "Charge them that are 
rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor 
trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who 
giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, 
that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, will- 
ing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a 
good foundation against the time to come, that they may 
lay hold on eternal life." 1 Tim. 6:17-19. 

Comment on the foregoing scripture is unnecessary. 
Let each one receive it as the direct voice of God, and 
prepare to make answer to Him in person. The church 
or the pastor that will bear a carnally soothing testimony 
now, seeking to take away the keen edge of God's warn- 
ing, becomes equally responsible with the man of wealth. 



YE HAVE HEAPED TREASURE 253 

The question is that of eternal destiny; and the man who 
is groping in the dark should not be told that he is 
all right. He should have his darkness and deception 
driven away by having presented to him the clear light 
of the infallible Word. 

The warning given by James should not be overlooked : 
"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your mis- 
eries that shall come upon you. Your riches are cor- 
rupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold 
and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a 
witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were 
fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days." 
Chapter 5 : 1-3. Thus does this scripture not only call 
attention to the " treasure" that shall be " heaped to- 
gether for the last days," but it also tells of the " mis- 
eries" that shall cause these "rich men" to "weep and 
howl," and of their unused wealth that "shall eat their 
flesh as it were fire." 

The present seizing of the wealth of the world, and 
its wanton display by those who possess it, form a large 
part of the seed-sowing, for that world-wide reign of 
terror that is hastening on. At different times small 
portions of the world have had to pass through the revo- 
lutionary horrors that congested and grinding wealth has 
produced. But that which confronts us to-day is not 
local, but world-wide. And the most distressing poverty 
that can be found is not more to be pitied than the men 
of colossal wealth; for smoldering beneath the banquet 
hall and all the luxuriant, extravagant dissipations and 
displays of the rich, may be clearly seen and heard the 
threatenings of the social volcano. The position of the rich 
is not an enviable one. The word of God places the mat- 



254 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

ter ill its true light, and rich and poor alike should give 
heed to the faithful warnings. 

When the word of God says, "Go to now, ye rich 
men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come 
upon you," it is a warning that is not to be passed by 
lightly. There is to be not only a "weeping" but a 
"howling" because of "miseries" that shall come upon 
the rich. It must be observed that the miser} 7 that 
causes this weeping and howling of the rich is not some- 
thing that God brings upon them in the form of a judg- 
ment or divine punishment, but it is something that 
"shall come" upon them. In other words, it is the har- 
vest for which they have been sowing, They have ag- 
grieved the poor and unfortunate in order to carry on 
their luxurious vices and "wanton" extravagance, and 
hence they simply reap what they have sown. A more 
definite truth can not be found than the Bible statement, 
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 
This is the statement of a divine law that may be ob- 
served everywhere. Our reaping must always be the 
fruit of what we sow. 

And in this connection, it should be stated that the 
man of moderate wealth, the one who has made a good 
living for himself and his family, and built a neat and 
comfortable home, but who can not be ranked among 
the financial kings, may be struck by the calamities pre- 
dicted in this prophecy, the same as "the great money 
barons," unless he is put on his guard, and prepares him- 
self against it. 

God has permitted people living at different periods 
of this earth's history to enact some of the scenes that 
are here foretold as being universal in the "last days." 



YE HAVE HEAPED TREASURE 255 

The most notable of these scenes is the one familiarly 
known as the " French E evolution and Eeign of Terror." 
Those who are acquainted with the history of that time 
know that reason was not allowed to act. The virtues of 
the individual were not investigated. But the popular 
cry was raised against men and women, and they were 
marched to the guillotine, in whole platoons, day after day. 

Men should be able to read in unmistakable language 
the signs of these times. The banding together of every 
trade and laboring occupation of whatever kind, and the 
popular clamor that is stirred up against the rich, can 
not be long in reaching a terrible climax. If this Scrip- 
ture prophecy were left entirely out of the calculation, 
men should learn from the reading of history alone that 
the conditions of to-day are rushing the world along to 
a general hurricane of revolution. The situation is such 
that it can not be averted. Just as surely as effect fol- 
lows cause, just that surely may we expect to see a 
world-wide revolution and general reign of terror. The 
fact that a man is in comfortable circumstances will be 
all the evidence required before the "violent" jury that 
will try his case at the mob's tribunal. Possession of 
honesty, integrity, and virtue, or lack of these things, 
will not enter into the count. In times of revolution, 
reason does not bear rule; it is sentimental and popular 
impulse that drives the mob to do their revolting acts 
of violence. 

We have seen, in a preceding chapter, that these last 
days are to be characterized by "violence," and this 
clash between capital and labor is one of the ingredients 
that will be very much in evidence in the stormy conflict. 
Do not throw this matter aside by saying, "This is such 



256 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

a dark picture!" From the world's standpoint, indis- 
putably the picture is a dark one. It is true, neverthe- 
less, and therefore we should give it our attention; for 
if we properly consider it, and properly relate ourselves 
to it, we need not be afflicted with any of the miseries of 
the time. To close our eyes to the facts that enter into 
the situation means everlasting ruin. 

The truly enlightened Christian will not be found now 
quarreling with the rich over their possessions; he will 
not be a party to this controversy between the rich and 
the poor; he will not espouse either side of it. He will 
recognize that his work is to point men to the fulfilling 
prophecy, and thus show them what these threatening 
dangers mean; for he knows that the time can not be 
far off when "they shall go into the holes of the rocks, 
and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and 
for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake 
terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols 
of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one 
for himself to worship ["lovers of their own selves, cov- 
etous"], to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts 
of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for 
fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when 
He ariseth to shake terribly the earth." Isa. 2: 19-21. 

Riches were intended by the Creator to be a blessing 
to all mankind. What an opportunity the man of wealth 
has in these times! But soon he will be called to give an 
account of his stewardship; and if still found at that 
time to be untrue to his trust, how great will be the con- 
fusion and bitter remorse into which he will be thrown! 
The money now found in the hands of many wealthy 
men has been gathered by extortion, and the commonest 



YE HAVE HEAPED TREASURE 257 

kind of honesty would suggest that it be returned to 
its rightful owners. But the poor should not take this 
work of judgment into their own hands by any means; 
for " behold, the Judge standeth before the door," and 
before that tribunal only righteousness and truth will 
prevail. 

While mercy's door is still held open, let every nerve 
be thrilled with the one work of pointing all to Him who 
is the Friend of sinners, and whose coming is only mer- 
cifully deferred that all who can possibly be touched by 
His love may be led to get ready to meet Him, and, amid 
the unsullied joys of the redeemed, live in His presence 
forevermore. Reader, will you assist in passing on the 
good news that Jesus is coming again, and that His com- 
ing is near, even at the doors? Men everywhere are un- 
nerved before the thought of the things that they see 
about them. In the prophetic language of the Saviour, 
their hearts are " failing them for fear, and for looking 
after those things which are coming on the earth." Help 
to tell them that this darkness is only the evil that Satan 
is stirring up in his last desperate effort to destroy man- 
kind. But our God has provided for every one, and we 
should see this, and enter into it before the destruction 
can overtake us. 



17 




CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 




ND the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is 
come, and the time of the dead, that they should 
be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward 
unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and 
them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldest 
destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple 
of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His 
temple the ark of His testament: and there were light- 
nings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, 
and great hail." Rev. 11:18, 19. 

This scripture brings us face to face with the "time 
of the dead, that they should be judged. " Judgment 
scenes are being presented in unmistakable language. 
Observe that the text also says that in that time "the 

258 




nations were angry." So, then, when the great judgment 
day is at hand, the nations will not be found at peace. 

Another scripture bears the same direct testimony: 
"And' I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out 
of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of 
the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 
For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, 
which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the 
whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great 
day of God Almighty." Rev. 16:13, 14. 

How extensive is the application of this scripture! 
"The kings of the earth and of the whole world," through 
the agency of evil spirits are to be gathered "to the bat- 
tle of that great day of God Almighty." The Lord has 
said, "Wo to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! 
for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, 
because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Rev. 
12: 12. It is this evil one who goes to "the kings of the 

259 



260 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

earth" to make them " angry" when he "knoweth" that 
time is short and the " great day of God Almighty" is 
almost here. The same evil spirit has sought to keep 
the people in ignorance of his workings by filling them 
with the' idea that we are approaching a time of uni- 
versal peace instead of the most awful war that the 
world has ever seen. 

Through the prophet Joel we have a vivid description 
of the great war preparations near the close of time. 
He says: " Proclaim ye this among the nations; pre- 
pare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of 
war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plow- 
shares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: 
let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves 
[margin], and come, all ye nations round about, and 
gather yourselves together: thither cause thy mighty ones 
to come down, O Jehovah. Let the nations bestir them- 
selves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for 
there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put 
ye in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe: come, get you 
down [margin] ; for the winepress is full, the vats over- 
flow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multi- 
tudes in the valley of decision [margin, Authorized Ver- 
sion, " concision, or threshing"]! for the day of Jehovah 
is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon 
are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. And 
Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from 
Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: 
but Jehovah will be a refuge unto His people, and a 
stronghold to the children of Israel. ' ' Chapter 3 : 9-16. 

This scripture also presents the judgment scenes. 
"For there will I sit to judge all the nations round 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY 261 

about." And again: " Multitudes, multitudes in the val- 
ley of decision! for the day of Jehovah is near in the 
valley of decision." Now observe that just as clearly 
as this scripture brings to view the sitting of the Lord 
"to judge all the nations," and the time when the "day 
of the Lord is near," just so clearly does it say: "Pro- 
claim ye this among the nations; prepare war; stir up 
the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let 
them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and 
your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am 
strong. ' ' 

Thus we find that the Scripture teaching makes it 
clear that the "last days" will be characterized by the 
intensity of the war spirit as well as by the intensity of 
wickedness in general, the marvelous increase of knowl- 
edge, the heaping together of treasure, and the great 
combining of every masterly deception that the enemy 
can invent. 

The Lord, through His prophets, speaks the truth 
concerning the nations. There will be a preparation for 
war; and instead of beating their swords into plowshares, 
and their spears into pruning-hooks, they will beat their 
"plowshares into swords, and their pruning-hooks into 
spears." Observe how different is the language of the 
Lord from that which many people will be saying in 
the last days, as has already been shown in chapter 14. 

The prophetic declaration is that the war spirit will 
prevail over the whole world; and what may be seen 
among the nations to-day? Does the outlook indicate 
a universal peace? Are not the greatest armies being 
organized, and the most marvelous implements of war 



262 



HEEALDS OF THE MOENING 



being forged, that could ever have been conceived in the 
wildest realm of imaginative fancy? 

The following table gives, as nearly as the facts can 
be obtained from the best statistical authorities, the com- 
parative strength of the principal armies of the world 
for the years 1869, 1892, 1897, and 1907. 

MILITARY STRENGTH, INCLUDING THE UNORGANIZED FORCES THAT 
HAVE HAD MILITARY DRILL AND TRAINING. 



COUNTRIES 



United States (including the 
regularly organized militia) 

Germany 

France 

Italy 

Austria 

Eussia 

Great Britain 

Turkey 

Spain 

Denmark 

Greece 

Switzerland 

Sweden and Norway 

Bulgaria 

Servia 

Eumania 

Japan 

China 

Mexico 

Brazil 

Chile 

Argentine Eepublic 

Venezuela 



Totals 



1869 



977,262 

825,696 

464,321 

822,472 

1,199,996 

251,722 

499,360 

173,785 

50,371 

14,716 

350,020 

183,561 

25,6 00 
38,000 



5,876,282 



1892 



4,500,000 

4,350,000 

1,636,000 

2,500,000 

4,000,000 

602,000 

1,150,000 

800,000 

91,000 

180,000 

338,000 

338,000 

180,000 
280,000 



20,945,000 



1897 



5,225,105 

5,014,842 

2,223,114 

1,782,400 

5,093,816 

800,800 

1,120,138 

1,561,826 

222,695 

297,964 

493,175 

276,219 

226,342 

271,170 

250,537 

349,941 

631,400 

165,427 

98,142 

95,714 

66,237 

257,764 



26,524,768 



1907 



163,581 

7,340,000 

4,790,000 

3,630,000 

5,490,000 

11,400,000 

4,750,000 

2,845.000 

2,160,000 

320,000 

280,000 

403,000 

855,831 

49o;ooo 

305,000 

720,000 

5,600,000 

1,060,000 

1,608,595 

2,100,000 

65,000 

500,000 

29,600 



56,905,607 



Increase between 1869 and 1892, 15,068,718; increase between 1892 and 1897, 
5,579,768; increase between 1897 and 1907, 30,380,839; increase for the whole 38 
years, between 1869 and 1907, 51,029,325, 

The first Napoleon introduced the idea of putting the 
whole male population under military conscription. The 
plan was at first treated as an innovation that should 
not be carried into practical effect. But, notwithstand- 
ing the military genius of Napoleon, and his great ability 



AND THE NATIONS WEKE ANGKY 



263 




in gathering and organ- 
izing armies, lie had only 
about four hundred seventy- 
five thousand men ready for 
^^Jfaq^the field when, in 1812, 
^"^ -7.;::- | ie ] 3e g an ^jg famous 

and disastrous march 
Moscow; and upon 
this occasion he wrote to 
Davout, "I have never 
pomade greater prepara- 
tions." This French 
army of less than 
half a million 




men had been the 
terror of all Europe. But ^ 
how small indeed does it seem 
when compared to-day with her 
great multitude of trained fight 
ing men. 

Prom the foregoing table it 
will be seen that as recently 
as 1869, Europe had less than 
six million men under arms; 
but a military epidemic has 
spread over the world ; and 
the armies of about 
six millions in 1869 
have been increased 
into the mighty 
hosts that are now 
trained for combat. 




British Navy over thirty miles long with ships touching 
each other end to end. 



264 



HEKALDS OF THE MORNING 



Still more significant than all these other facts is the 
military fever that broke out so suddenly and so exten- 
sively in the United States in the early part of 1898. 
This country had held herself aloof from the entangle- 
ments of Old World politics, and in her majestic isolation 
felt no need of a great army; but trouble with Spain 
arises, and with one dashing bound she springs into the 




The war-ships of the world, one to a 
mile, would cover a line farther than from 
New York to Liverpool. 



very center of the broils of the " angry" nations, and 
from every human indication she will remain in the tur- 
bulent stream of international politics until the final bat- 
tle of that " great day." 

No sooner has the United States, with all her great 
strength and resources, bounded into the arena as an ac- 
tive and progressive, expanding, colonizing world-power, 
than Japan suddenly breaks forth also, and surprises 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY 265 

the whole world by her military and naval abilities. And 
Japan's successes on both land and sea in her contest 
with Russia set China to thinking, and she has employed 
western military men to instruct her many millions of 
male population in the most modern and up-to-date 
methods of warfare. China is determined to have an 
army that in both numbers and efficiency will be equal 
to the task of defending herself in any emergency that 
may arise. The spirit of unrest has swept into India, 
and her vast hordes are being agitated by the desire 
to arise as a military power. 

Japan, ever on the strenuous aggressive, has, by her 
example, taught India as well as China what may be 
accomplished. India's agitators are telling her people 
that in the strength of her vast numbers she can assert 
herself and be an independent and mighty power. 

Brazil is building a great navy of Dreadnaughts ; 
Argentine says she must not allow herself to be outdone 
by her sister republic; and so one nation after another 
is joining the procession of war-crazed peoples. 

The sudden awakenings among the hitherto dormant 
and unprogressive heathen nations of the Orient should 
call to our minds vividly again the words already quoted 
from the prophet Joel, " Proclaim ye this among the 
nations; prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all 
the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat 
your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into 
spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye, and 
come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves 
together: thither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, 
O Jehovah. Let the nations bestir themselves, and come 
up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to 



266 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle; 
for the harvest is ripe: come, tread ye; for the wine- 
press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is 
great." Joel 3:9-13. 

" Their wickedness is great," so says this scripture, 
at the time when this great arousing to war occurs. This 
great wickedness, at the bottom of which are greed, self- 
ishness, and lust, as has been shown elsewhere in these 
pages, prepares the soil for the violent and world-wide 
spread of war that this and the other prophecies call for. 
And so the nations will " bestir themselves" and " haste" 
to come to the great war of the end of the world. "Let 
the weak say, I am strong." Thus does the prophecy 
show that even the weak and unimportant nations from 




The "Hartford," Admiral Farragut's flagship in the battle of Mobile Bay, Aug. 5, 1864. 
It was in the port main rigging of this ship where, according to Oliver Wendell Holmes, 
the Admiral "made his mast a throne," and successfully directed one of the most daring 
and famous battles of all the naval combats of history. The "Hartford" had both steam 
and sail, and was one of the very best of the battle-ships in that day of the recent past. 
She was of 1,900 tons displacement; her speed under steam alone was ' eight knots, 
and under steam and sail combined eleven knots; her guns were twenty-two nine-inch 
Dahlgrens, two twenty-pounder Parrots, and a rifled Sawyer gun on the forecastle. Far- 
ragut had her fore- and main-tops protected with boiler iron and armed with howitzers. 
A brief glance at the facts given in connection with the illustrations of war-ships on the 
following pages will impress one with the awful advancement thr,t has been made in the art 
of naval warfare during the last half century. 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY 



267 



the military point of view, are to arise and say, "I am 
strong." How strikingly has Japan done this! In what 
a marked and aggressive manner is China doing it! And 
how unmistakable is the evidence that even supine and 
sleepy India is awaking and arousing for the conflict. 

And then the awakening to war preioarations in the 
countries of South America and elsewhere should not 
be overlooked. These things are too marked and literal 
in their fulfilment to be set to one side light!}'. God has 
made it so that we can clearly understand the meaning 
of the events of this time, and it is to our eternal inter- 
est closely and respectfully to consider what He has fore- 
told. 

Returning to a consideration of the marvelous in- 
crease in the number of men composing the armies of 
the world, we should by no means get the impression 
that their increase of numbers gives a full presentation 
of their vastly increased power; for the weapons with 




United States coast defense monitor "Florida." She represents a type of vessel that 
marked the improvements on Ericsson's "Monitor," which is mentioned quite fully in these 
pages. Displacement 3,235 tons, speed 11.5 knots, guns: two 12-inch, four 4-inch rapid-fire, 
three 6-pounders, four 1 -pounder automatic, four 1 -pounder rapid-fire, two .30-caliber auto- 
matic. She was used as a target in the early part of 1908 to enable the naval men of the 
nation to make a practical study of the effect of both shells and torpedoes when discharged 
against the steel walls of the modern battle-ship. 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY 269 

which Napoleon and the great generals of all former 
times fought, were mere toys when compared with the 
weapons that are now being prepared. 

Previous to the Rebellion in this coun- 

03 +? B K 02 -<f W ^ 

^g^^-a try, 1861-1864, breech-loading guns were 






&a^t^C infantry that could be fired much more 



!&«I13'"I"""I a wot in use to any extent. Their introduc- 

"||"lst°||s' s tion placed a weapon in the hands of the 

«s H2 t*— ^"o g "s-i 

^^sJ^IT-li rapidly than the guns they replaced; and 

ts-sl.jsg^a&Sf^! immediately other improvements in am- 

s^J^lTS*^ munition, etc., followed, making these 

= 1 breech-loading guns far more effective in 



SM^o^ 



.sa 



^* S jb* range and accuracy. In 1861 Dr. R. J. 






la^iSl5.al Gatling invented the gun that bears his 
name, and the ingenious mechanism of 






feii'S 



^§«^..s^ „ ^-|-s s .§* this weapon enables it to fire from s&# 

rtlslllilis-Ssi hundred to twelve hundred shots a 

3»3l Js^^a o^l ft minute. The " Maxim automatic machine 

l* s f a a sl^|||'S gun" is perhaps one of the best known 

gllg^*g i-d s Is |g °f these modern "Devil's spouts," as mil- 

6s™"" 



0> ft.^ c3 



itary men call them. This Maxim gun is 



!^!J!^|Jjp fully automatic; that is, when its ammu- 
S^^oot^^> s tl nition is placed in position, the gunner 



coo -*=.£„.„.„ 



ill&ll^ll^'s simply keeps his finger pressed on the 
&s°lf!!t trigger and directs the aim, and the re- 

M J3 ago)®* , ° 7 

„ &c l|io^gf c °il from each bullet as it is fired ejects 
Sill^t!!®*!! the shell, and throws in place and dis- 
charges the next bullet, and so on. The 
operator swings the gun to and fro very much as a fire- 
man would use his hose, and he pours upon the enemy 
a literal stream of death-dealing lead. No advancing 
column can meet such a fire without complete destruction. 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY 



271 



Among the illustrations of the awfully destructive 
work of these machine guns may be cited numerous in- 
stances in recent years; for example, the fight on the 
Nile between the British and the Dervishes. The Der- 
vishes had none of the modern weapons, but showed all 
the valor of the most warlike armies of former times. 
They charged upon the British in great numbers, but 
it was only to be mowed down by thousands beneath the 
Withering fire of the machine guns of the English. The 
reports stated that less than a hundred of the British 
were killed and not three hundred were wounded, while 
the lowest estimates of the Dervishes killed and wounded 
were fifteen thousand, and some reports said twenty- 
two thousand. 

Mr. H. P. Maxim, a son of Hiram Maxim, who had 
been working with his father in the inventing of agents 
of destruction, became sick at heart at the thought of 
devoting his life to devising improved methods for kill- 



Sample of floating target used 
in marine gun practise. The tar- 
get is towed behind a boat, and 
the war-ship is required to be 
under way when shooting. As 
a sample of the gunnery, a United 
States battle-ship steaming at ten 
knots an hour opened fire at a 
target similar to this when she 
was four and one-half miles dis- 
tant. She continued the fire for 
eight minutes, and she was then 
five and a half miles from the tar- 
get. The target was thirty feet 
high and fifty feet long, and in that 
time she put through it four 12- 
inch, nine 8-inch, and seventeen 
7-inch shells. Consider the range 
at which this work was done, and 
also that the target was only about 
one tenth the length of the modern 
battle-ship. Instruments for deter- 
mining the exact range of the ene- 
mies' ship and also for training the 
gun, as well as the scientific skill 
to use these instruments, have been 
so perfected that the gunner can 
hit his mark nearly every time, 




Courtesy of the "Scientific American." 



and that notwithstanding the fact that his target as well as the ship on which his gun is 
located is rolling and pitching with all the motion of the sea. It is stated on good au- 
thority that at the time of the Spanish-American war four per cent of hits was a good average. 
Now there are gun crews that are making a record of more than seventy-five per cent of hits. 



272 



HEEALDS OF THE MOKNING 



ing his fellow men. And so he decided to turn his at- 
tention to the construction and improvement of auto- 
mobiles. When he started into this line of work he soon 
discovered that the principle of muffing the noise made 
by the exhaust of the gas-engine could be applied to 




British battle-ship "Dreadnaught." Length 520 feet, beam 82 feet, displacement 18,000 
tons, speed 21 knots; armor: belt 11 inches, turrets 11 inches; guns: ten 12-inch, eighteen 
3-inch. 

This is the battle-ship that has revolutionized modern naval warfare. Going back to the 
"Oregon," authorized by the United States Congress in 1890, we find that she had a displace- 
ment of only 10,288 tons, and but four of the big guns. She was considered one of the best 
battle-ships in her day, and she made herself famous by her great trip from San Francisco 
Bay to Santiago, Cuba, reaching there in time to engage in the famous battle with the 
Spanish fleet. Following the experiences of the Spanish-American war the size of the battle- 
ship was gradually increased till we come to the "Connecticut" of 16,000 tons. But when war 
broke out between Russia and Japan, England was permitted to have some of her best naval 
experts accompany the Japanese fleet in all of their great engagements. As soon as the war 
was over, these experts got together and designed the "Dreadnaught," and she was completed 
in one year from the time her keel was laid. Previous to that it had been considered that 
from three to four years were required in which to complete a battle-ship. 

When she was completed she was longer than the biggest of the armored cruisers, and 
seventy feet longer than any battle-ship afloat. She has ten of the big 12-inch guns instead 
of the usual number of four that had been placed on previous battle-ships. Her great size 
and peculiar arrangement enables her to concentrate six of her big guns ahead or the same 
number astern, and she can swing eight of them to either broadside, and the guns are so 
positioned that the blast from one gun does not interfere with the firing of another. 

Her guns are all of the late type of high-power, and increased accuracy and efficiency, 
and since her great size and arrangement make it possible for her guns to be widely separ- 
ated on her deck, and with fhese guns incased in turrets with sloping sides it is a very 
difficult task for the enemy to disable her completely. Briefly to state the facts, this great 
fighting ship that was built in a single year left all previous battle-ships so far behind that 
all the other nations at once entered the race of "Dreadnaught" building. 



AND THE NATIONS WEKE ANGRY 



273 



the rifle as well. His old habits of working with guns 
and explosives took possession of him again, and the 
result was his invention of a gun that is both smokeless 
and noiseless. He has a muffler attachment that so effec- 
tually absorbs the sound from the discharge of the in- 
fantry rifle that a slight hissing sound is all that can 
be heard, and that for only a distance of a few feet. 
Mr. Maxim says that he is appalled at the thought 
of what he has invented. An enemy can lie in ambush 




Courtesy Senator George C. Perkins. 

The 20,000-ton United States battle-ship "Delaware," sister ship to the "North Dakota." 
"This," to use the words of the Scientific American, "is our answer to the 'Dreadnaught,' " and 
"this type with center-line turrets has become standard in the world's navies." The same 
authority says, "There is not the slightest doubt that our 'Delaware' could defeat in action 
a whole division of 'Oregons,' or could destroy the entire American fleet of the Spanieh- 
American war." She is ten feet longer on the water-line, she is three feet wider, and of 2,000 
tons greater displacement. She is armed with the same number of big guns as the "Dread- 
naught," but has 5-inch rapid-fire guns for repelling torpedo attacks, instead of the 3-inch 
rapid-fire guns of her British rival. This vessel immediately made the great "Dreadnaught" a 
"back number." The United States completed the "Florida" and "Utah" in 1911. They are 
sister ships of much the same design as the "Delaware," and the same large guns, but their 
displacement is 21,825 tons. This country has in building two battle-ships, to be completed in 
1912, of 26,000 tons displacement, and twelve 12-inch guns; for 1913, two of 27,000 tons, and 
ten 14-inch guns; for 1914, two of 27,500 tons, and ten 14-inch guns. 

Since 1906 England has built fourteen of these great "Dreadnaughts," and she has kept 
increasing the size, until the last two were of 22,500 tons displacement, and these last have 
ten 13.o-inch guns. She has under way for 1912 two more of 22,500 tons, and for 1913 
and 1914 eight of 25,000 tons, each to be armed with ten 13.5-inch guns. France has com- 
pleted four of the "Dreadnaughts," and has six more in building, the largest one of which is 
23,000 tons displacement, and her latest designs place twelve 12-inch guns on each ship. 
Germany already has completed seven "Dreadnaughts," and has nine building. Her largest 
one is 22,000 tons, and all of them except the four earliest are armed with twelve 12-inch 
guns. Japan has three built, and two more to be finished in 1912, her largest one being of 
24,000 tons displacement, and her three latest are each armed with twelve 12-inch guns. 
Russia has six building, Italy has one built and three building, Austria is building four, 
while several of the very largest are building for some of the little South American republics. 

18 



274 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



and shoot down his victims, and there is neither sound 
nor smoke to indicate the direction from which the bul- 
lets are coming. It can also readily be seen that this 
weapon will be even more potent in the hands of the 
highwayman and assassin. Lurking under cover, he can 
do his horrible deeds, with nothing to attract attention 
to his whereabouts. 

But it is not alone in these smaller arms for the in- 
fantry that the great improvements have been made. 
The wars of forty or fifty years ago were fought with 
old muzzle-loading, cast-iron cannon, and the most of 




British cruiser "Indomitable." Length 560 feet, displacement 17,250 tons, speed 25 knots. 
She carries eight 12-inch and sixteen 4-inch guns. 

This is called the "Dreadnaught" cruiser, and like the great British battle-ship, she has 
made a revolution in the building of cruisers. She carries just twice as many of the big guns 
as did the first-class battle-ships previous to the building of the "Dreadnaught" in 1906. These 
guns are so placed that they can all be fired to either broadside, and six ahead or astern. 
She not only is much more powerful than any of the cruisers built before 1906, but she would 
make a stronger fight than any of the battle-ships prior to that date. England has built 
four more of these "Dreadnaught" ci'uisers, and has five building. One that is already built 
and three that are under Avay are of 26,500 tons displacement and have a speed of 28 knots. 
Germany has two built and three building, her largest being 23,000, with a speed of 28 
knots; while Japan heads the list for size and gun power in her "Dreadnaught" cruiser that 
is building, of 27,000 tons displacement, and armed with the 13.5-inch guns. 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY 



275 



them were smooth-bore. While some of these guns had 
about as large a bore as the guns of to-day, no com- 
parison could be made as to their effectiveness. 

All are familiar with the famous battle between the 
"Merrimac" and the "Monitor" in the Civil War of the 
United States. Mr. John E. Spears thus describes the 
armament of the "Merrimac": "The battery of the 'Mer- 
rimac' contained six of the nine-inch Dahlgrens found in 
the Norfolk navy-yard, and four rifles designed by Brooke. 
Two of these rifles were mounted as pivots at bow and 




Courtesy Senator Geo. C. Perkins. 

United States submarine torpedo-boat "Narwhal." In the early nineties certain inventors 
were attracting the attention of the governments of the world by their claims that they could 
make boats so that they would dive under the water, approach an enemy's war-ship, and dis- 
charge a torpedo against it without being observed. The practicability of these ships has been 
demonstrated, and the United States now (1912) has 38; Great Britain, 82; France, 81; 
Germany, 24; Japan, 13; Russia, 39; Italy, 20; Austria, 12. 

In naval maneuvers, submarines have approached vessels in clear daylight, while a sharp 
lookout in every direction was kept up. But they succeeded in keeping out of sight under the 
water until near enough to discharge their blank torpedoes, and nothing was seen of them until 
the thud of the missile in its harmless condition was felt on the sides of the target vessel. 

In the latter part of 1911 three British siibmarines completed a voyage of 9,000 miles, 
from Portsmouth, England, to Hongkong, China. On another occasion a flotilla of these 
vessels went three hundred miles, under war conditions, and remained, in the course of the 
voyage, forty consecutive hours under water. A United States submarine vessel was directed 
to go to the bottom in one of our harbors and remain there for twenty-four hours, and then 
come to the surface again; and she performed the feat successfully. These and many oiher 
experiments have demonstrated that the submarine is one of the deadliest of the modern adjuncts 
of the navy ; and these diving war-ships can assist the fleet on the high seas as well as in the 
harbors. Ten miles is the farthest a submarine can be seen when running on the surface; and 
when submerged, she can maneuver about a hostile ship for hours unobserved. 



276 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 




Interior of the barrack battery, Sebastopol, showing the rope mantelet used by the Rus- 
sians to protect their srunners from the Minie rifle. 

This is a view of an up-to-date fortification in the war of the Crimea 1854 to 1856. 
Jefferson Davis, who was Secretary of War at that time, sent Majors Delafield and Mordecai 
to the scenes of strife to make observations. Of the fortifications of Sebastopol the majors 
said in their report : 

"They are particularly important and interesting to the officers of our army as a study, 
from the fact of their being of recent construction, similar, in a great measure, to the 
system we have adopted for our sea-coast, and from having resisted the most powerful attack 
that can, in the present day, be brought against them, by the combined fleets of England, 
France, and Turkey." 

The outer forts in the defenses of Sebastopol had 261 guns, and the fleets of the allies 
brought 2,156 guns into the engagement, half of which could be fired from either broadside at the 
forts. This gave a continuous fire of 1,078 guns at the fortifications of Sebastopol, a section 
of which is shown in the above illustration. The distance of the hostile ships from the forts 
ranged all the way from 600 to 1,500 yards. The bombardment lasted five and one-half 
hours, and the report says that the efficiency of the forts was not destroyed and none of the 
ships were sunk. These facts concerning that historic and world-famous siege of half a century 
ago seem like the description of the cooing of infants when compared with present-day de- 
velopments. 

Other interesting items in the report of that commission are: 

1. Mention of the "floating batteries" which were the forerunners of our modern steel 
armored battle-ships. 

2. "The electric telegraph was another novelty in the art of war, first used during this 
memorable siege." 

3. "Mines were exploded by the voltaic batteries.' 

4. "Torpedo mines 

5. "An attempt . 

6. "A breech-loading musket" " that had not been sufficiently perfected "to recommend it 
for our service." 



to explode by the contact of any vessel running against them." 
to adapt the rifle principle to the heaviest artillery." 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGEY 



277 



stern, and two smaller ones were in the broadside. The 
pivots were cast-iron muzzle-loading rifles of seven-inch 
caliber, and they weighed fourteen thousand five hundred 
pounds each. The reader will appreciate the weight of 
the gun when it is told that the best gun in the British 
navy at that time was the sixty-eight-pounder, having a 
caliber of eight inches and weighing nine thousand five 
hundred pounds. Moreover, Brooke's heavy casting was 
reinforced by wr ought-iron bands shrunk on. The broad- 
side guns were of the same construction, but weighed nine 
thousand pounds, and were of four-inch caliber. Brooke's 
guns ivere far and away the best then afloat." — "History 
of Our Navy/' Vol. 4/ p. 188. 

John M. Brooke took the lead in the designing and 
building of the "Merrimac"; hence the references to him 
in the foregoing quotation. It should also be stated that 




Courtesy of Scientific American. 
View of a typical coast defense mortar battery, with position finder in a masked position 
on an adjoining elevation. The battery is in a depression, or behind some embankment 
entirely out of sight of the ocean, so that its operators can not see, neither can it be seen 
by, the hostile ship. The water within range of these batteries is all platted, and carefully 
drawn maps are before the gunners in charge of the battery, and also with the position finder 
on the distant elevation. The position finder, by means of his instruments and calculations 
locates the square on the map in which the enemy's ship is and also determines her direction 
and speed. This information is telephoned to the gunner, and he trains his mortar to the 
proper elevation and direction, selects the proper charge of powder, fires his piece, and the shell 
will fall with a large percentage of accuracy on the deck of the enemy's war-ship. 



278 HEEALDS OF THE MOKNING 

the "Merrimac" was covered with four inches of iron, 
laid on a backing of oak timbers. 

The "Monitor" had a covering of five one-inch iron 
plates bolted on, and also backed by heavy oak timbers. 
Her flat deck was protected by two layers of half -inch iron 
plates. Her revolving turret was built up of eight thick- 
nesses of one-inch iron plates. She carried in this turret 
two eleven-inch smooth-bore guns, firing solid shot weigh- 
ing from one hundred seventy to one hundred eighty 
pounds. Her speed was between four and five knots an 
hour. 

Both of these vessels were built at the same time, the 
"Merrimac" by the Confederates, and the " Monitor" by 
the Union forces in the North. The "Merrimac" was 
completed in time to get in one day's fighting before the 
" Monitor" could reach the scene of action. There had 
been much gossip about the building of these two iron- 
clads, and the rumors descriptive of the "Merrimac" 
had inspired a good deal of dread among many of the 
Northern men. But the officers of the Union navy were 
fully convinced that Lord Howard Douglas "had con- 
clusively demonstrated that an ironclad would prove more 
dangerous to her own crew than to the enemy;" they were 
sure she could not be made to float; so they were full of 
confidence when they entered the fight against this new 
engine of war. The "Merrimac" rammed the "Cumber- 
land," and soon sank her. She then turned to the "Con- 
gress," and after a little while destroyed this vessel also. 
She then retired to the Confederate side for the night, 
thinking to return in the morning and destroy the rest 
of the Union fleet and the shore batteries as well. 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGBY 279 

The " Monitor" steamed into Hampton Roads that 
night, and when the "Merrimac" came back to resume 
the fight in the morning, the two vessels engaged in the 
first battle between ironclads. They fought each other 
for six hours. Each vessel tried to ram the other. Shot 
after shot was fired with the ships almost touching each 
other. Each side had a new kind of naval equipment, 
and each fought with the desperate and valorous deter- 
mination that the novel condition inspired. 

The "Merrimac" came into this engagement with a 
good deal of confidence, for she had been the target the 
day before for one hundred heavy guns at one time. The 
men-of-war that she had destroyed, as well as numerous 
shore batteries, had vigorously played their guns upon 
her. Some of her parts had been shot away, it is true; 
but her iron armor was still uninjured; and even after 
her six hours' duel with the "Monitor" on the following 
day her armor was nowhere pierced. It is also true that 
she served her ten guns on the "Monitor" at short range 
for all of that six hours' contest, and to the best of her 
ability; still the "Monitor's" armor was also uninjured. 

The "Monitor" fired one of her two guns about every 
seven or eight minutes, thus showing that it took nearly 
a quarter of an hour to load each gun and get it in posi- 
tion to shoot. The "Merrimac" having five guns on each 
broadside, was able to fire one of them on an average 
about every three minutes while she was doing her best 
work. So it will be seen that it also took about fifteen 
minutes to load and shoot one of her guns. 

One gun crew on the "Merrimac" became so disheart- 
ened with their inability to break through the armor of 
the "Monitor," that they ceased firing, saying as they did 



280 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

so, "We can do her about as much damage by snapping 
our fingers at her every two or three minutes." 

This battle between these two ironclads brought out 
the very best there was in all the world up to that time 
in the way of cannon as well as naval vessels. This mat- 
ter has been presented somewhat in detail, in order to 
show the contrast between naval warfare then and now. 
The first battle between ironclads was fought in the recent 
past; but both the ships and cannon of that time are 
very primitive when placed beside those in use to-day. 

For instance, if it had been a modern battle-ship that 
met the "Merrimac" and the " Monitor" combined, on that 
March morning in 1862, the story would have been very 
different. It was considered remarkable then that the 
"Merrimac" and the " Monitor" began firing at each 
other when they were a mile apart, even though their 
shots could make no impression on the iron walls at which 
they were aiming. But the modern battle-ship would not 
regard it a very great feat to turn one of her big guns 
on a target like the "Merrimac" at a distance of three 
or four miles, and would expect to hit her with nearly 
every shot. 

The battle-ship of to-day could have kept completely 
out of the range of the "Merrimac's" and the "Mon- 
itor's" guns while it easily broke the vessels to pieces 
with her accurately aimed shells. 

Thus we see that the last few decades have completely 
revolutionized the weapons of war. When we consider 
the difference between the very best battle-ship of 1862 
and one of the best ships of to-day, we see that no com- 
parison can be made; and nothing has been said about 
the hard steel armor with which the modern man-of-war 



282 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



is covered. The best guns of 1862 might fire indefinitely at 
such steel walls as cover the men-of-war to-day, and make 
no impression upon them. 

It is next to impossible to keep track of the improve- 
ments in the military and naval profession; for what may 
be truthfully said to-day is likely to be entirely out of 
date to-morrow. But suppose we take one of the many 
battle-ships that are now building. The Harveyized steel 
plates, which a short time ago were considered the best 



Mr. Maxim sees the spirit of war that 
is rising in the world, and has set him- 
self the task of producing such deadly 
engines of destruction that the very 
terror of them will cause war to cease, 
not seeming to realize that he is only 
helping it along. 

He is the inventor of the multi-per- 
forated smokeless powder grain, was the 
first to make smokeless powder in the 
United States, and invented and sold to 
the United States government his formula 
for "maximite," the first high explosive to 
be fired from a cannon with powder 
through armor-plate. He is also the 
inventor of "motorite," a material which 
by self-combustion drives the torpedo 
through the water at from 45 to 60 
miles an hour. Owing to the increased 
range of the big guns, the line of battle 
between hostile fleets would be so great 
that the torpedo could not be made ef- 
fective. Hence the battle-ships that were 
made a few years ago were leaving out 
the tubes for throwing torpedoes. But 
principally through the inventions and 
discoveries of Mr. Maxim the torpedo 
has been increased in range, and the 
torpedo tube has been put back upon the 
recent ships. He invented a detonating 
fuse for high explosive projectiles which 
has proved superior to % all rivals, and has 
been adopted by the United States gov- 
ernment. He has designed a new type 
of small torpedo-boat that is driven by 
"motorite" and carries a ton of high explosive against the side of the battle-ship attacked. No 
vessel is supposed to be able to withstand the shock of such an explosion. Another one of Mr. 
Maxim's inventions, and perhaps among the most important, is stabillite. This is a new 
smokeless powder which, in addition to its superior qualities in other respects, has the in- 
valuable advantage of being ready for use as soon as it is produced. The smokeless powder 
previously made required several months, and for the largest guns more than a year, to 
become sufficiently dried out for use. In case of war this one item alone might be the winning 
factor. 




HUDSON MAXIM. 



AND THE NATIONS WEKE ANGRY 



283 



for armor, gave place to the ' ' Krupp-gas-process ' ' plates, 
which were such an improvement over the Harvey plates 
that armor ten and eleven inches thick has all the power 
of resistance possessed by the fifteen-inch to eighteen-inch 
Harvey armor. And now the Krupp armor is far more 
greatly outdone by vanadium steel. This allows a vessel 
to be built with far greater strength and resistance than 
the great battle-ship of ten years ago, and yet by thus 
lightening her armor her fuel supply may be so increased 
that she can keep at sea much longer. 

Now, it would not be making a wild conjecture to say 
that if the navies of every nation in the world, covering 
every moment of the earth's history down to March 9, 
1862, when the "Merrimac" and the "Monitor" fought 
their duel, could all be brought into use again, together 
with their great commanders and valiant marines, and 
gathered into one place, a single battle-ship, with the 
latest and best improvements, would have no fears nor 




Courtesy "Harp 



Weekly." 



The "Monitor" (the "cheese-box on a raft") in battle with the "Merrimac" in Hampton 
Roads on March 9, 1862. In Harper's Weekly H. Ashton Ramsay, Major C. S. A., Chief Engi- 
neer C. S. N., gives a most thrilling account of this battle, from which we quote the following: 
"And now the great fight was on, a fight the like of which the world had never seen. With 
the. battle of yesterday old methods had passed away, and with them the experience of a thousand 
years 'of battle and of breeze' was brought to naught. The books of all navies were burned 
... by a conflagration as ruthless as the torch of Omar. A new leaf had been turned, a virgin 
page on which to transcribe and record the art of naval warfare." 



284 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



run any great risk in meeting them alone and single- 
handed. 

The modern battle-ship would steam out fearlessly into 
the wilderness of sails and masts, of schooners, and gal- 
leys, and sloops, and frigates. She would not fear their 
guns; for their puny efforts could make no impressions 
on her steel armor, and besides, if she chose, she could 
keep out of their reach all the time, while she broke the 
fragile hulls of their vessels to pieces with her ponderous 
shells. 

Indeed, if she so chose, this modern naval leviathan 
could plow back and forth through those war-ships of 
the past and break them all to pieces with her prow 
without ever firing a gun at all. In a word, let it be said 
that the wildest and most fanciful nurserv tales that the 




Courtesy of 
Scientific American. 



The illustration represents a piece of 16-inch armor-plate showing 
effect of modern cannon in the early nineties. 

The so-called "floating batteries" that were attracting attention 
in the middle of the last century set the military and naval world to 
studying the question of armor. Common wrought iron was used at 
first; but by 1891 the developments in the study of making steel gave 
the navies of the world the "Harvey process," that produced a steel 
that was fully twice as capable of resisting the cannon-ball as was 
the old wrought iron. The battle-ships and cruisers had no sooner 
been incased with this improved steel than the "Krupp-gas-process" 
steel was developed, with a resisting power that was 10 to 15 per 
cent greater than the Harvey steel. 

The great increase of the power of guns acts as a constant 
stimulant to the manufacturers of armor, and much tougher and 
more resistant armor-plates are being devised. This is shown in 
the tests that are made year by year. The nickel-chrome-vanadium 
alloy has been used in making a steel for turret and conning-tower 
tops of greatly increased resistant powers. 

And the Scientific American of Dec. 9, 1911, is authority for 
the statement that experiments with new processes of heat treatment 
and new alloys promise soon to make another great revolution in 
armor-plate. 

A Russian came to the United States with a small rifle to shoot an 
improved bullet of about .44 caliber, both being of his invention. 
With this small gun he was able to shoot holes through Krupp steel 
that was seven-eighths of an inch thick. He seemed to be carrying 
everything before him, for the same principle could be applied to 
the largest of the cannon, and it looked as if he had invented a 
weapon that nothing could resist. But one of Mr. Carnegie's young 
associates was sent to see the operations of the gun, and incidentally 
he took with him a piece of vanadium steel plate one-half inch thick. 
The Russian took his position two hundred yards from this target, 
and fired, but made no impression on the plate. He then came to 
within one hundred yards and fired again and again, but it required 
a magnifying-glass to show where his bullets had struck. He then 
advanced to within twenty-one feet of the plate, and the best he 
could do was to make a mark that could hardly be seen. 



AND THE NATIONS WEKE ANGRY 



285 



lowest depths of superstition, combined with the highest 
flights of imagination, have produced, would not be equal 
to the thrilling facts, if a thoroughly modern battle- 
ship could enter the conflict with anything and every- 
thing that the naval world produced previous to 1862. 
What does it all mean ? Have you ever thought about it ? 
While it may be said that one modern battle-ship 
might successfully combat the combined navies of all 
time previous to 1862, it would not be chimerical or 
an outbreak of fancy to say that were any one of the 
great nations of to-day equipped with magazine breech- 



\ r ^\M(* 



^^^mmmmm^mmMmmm^ n 






m 



xzr 



*&& 



'&&'M%% 



i , r i .a 



J L 



Actual penetration of a trial shot from a 16*4 -inch, 110-ton gun. The missile passed through 
20 inches compound plate, 8 inches wrought iron, 20 feet oak timbers, 5 feet granite, 11 feet con- 
crete, and buried itself 6 feet in a brick wall. 

loading rifles, machine guns, small rapid-fire cannon, etc., 
and the Pharaohs, and Nebuchadnezzar, and Cyrus, and 
Alexander, and Hannibal, and the Scipios, and Caesars, 
and Cromwell, and Napoleon, and Grant, and Sherman, 
and Lee, and all the rest of the great military leaders of 
all time previous to 1862, could bring all their armies 
into the field, armed as each one fought in his day, they 
would be mowed down by these modern engines of death 
before they could possibly get close enough to strike any 
very telling blows. This sounds like fiction, but how lit- 
erally it is fact instead ! Is it not truly significant % Does 
it not show a wonderful transformation? What does it 
mean, that all this should be done in a single generation? 



286 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

At the siege of Baza, 1489, the Saracens are said to 
have had some rude cannon in which powder was used. 
There is evidence that gunpowder was known and used 
in very much remoter times; but it was not materially 
improved in its power and effectiveness until within the 
last quarter of the nineteenth century. During these 
recent years, however, not only is the powerful slow- 
burning powder devised, but other explosives are invented 
that are much more terrific than the simple powder. 
General Nelson A. Miles said truly: "There never was a 
time in the whole history of the world when so much in- 
genuity, wealth, and skill were employed in the invention 
and construction of the appliances of war." Why this 
intense activity, and why this unparalleled advancement 
in the realm of war? 

While God has prepared most marvelous agencies for 
carrying His gospel to all the world, Satan will pervert 
the great railway and steamship facilities into a means 
of speedily gathering the immense armies of earth to 
"the war of that great day." A hundred years ago armies 
had to be marched from place to place or carried, when 
possible, by the old sailboat. How slow do these methods 
seem when compared with the steamship and railway 
facilities of to-day for mobilizing large armies! When 
the time is reached for God to withdraw His restraint, 
how quickly can all the armies of the world be gathered 
to Armageddon! 

Some are gathering an unwarranted consolation from 
the idea that these weapons of modern warfare are be- 
coming so fearful in their destructiveness that men will 
be afraid to engage each other in battle. Never was 
there a greater delusion. Soldiers are trained for war, 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY 287 

and when ordered to charge the enemy they do it re- 
gardless of consequences. They expect to be killed, in 
all probability, and they face death with determination. 
This is the history of the soldier during all time, and 
the wars of to-day serve to demonstrate that the soldier 
of to-day will face the weapons of to-day as valiantly 
as men of former centuries faced their enemies who were 
armed with nothing more formidable than swords and 
spears. Indeed it will be seen as the conflict deepens in 
these last days that there will be an intensity and feroc- 
ity in battle that is as much greater than anything of 
former times as the military weapons of these days out- 
strip those of the ancients. The spirit of violence, which 
as we have already seen is to characterize these days, will 
take possession of the soldier as well as every one else 
who will yield to it, and he will be driven on to the field 
of battle with all the furies that can be engendered by 
the demons of war. 

In speaking of " Courage in Modern Warfare," the 
Scientific American said of the war between Spain and 
the United States: 

"The conflict has proved that the theorists were alto- 
gether wrong— at least so far as they discounted the 
value of the personal equation. Daring, dogged endur- 
ance, indomitable pluck, forehanded aggressiveness, self- 
possession in the critical moment — all the qualities, in- 
deed, that went to make the ideal soldier in the days of 
the three-deckers and the muzzle-loading rifle — are as 
much a decisive factor now as then." 

England carried into South Africa the most highly 
perfected weapons of those days; but the Boers faced 
them with bravery and courage. On the other hand, the 



288 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



Boers were armed with modern weapons, and thousands 
of the homes of Britons give silent evidence of the cour- 
age of their troops in the face of high-power cannon and 
the murderous rain of machine guns. In the war with 
Russia, whole battalions of the Japanese army, including 
officers and men, were mown down like grass, but still 
they charged again and again. Each succeeding example 
demonstrates that the modern weapon has no terrors that 
will stop the modern soldier. 

Pride of nationality and the ambition to achieve re- 
nown on the field of battle always have been and always 
will be sufficient incentives to drive men into the face 




Courtesy Brig. Gen. William Crozier, Chief of Ordnance, U. S. Armii. 
15-inch Rodman smooth bore. Mr. Rodman was an important character in connection with 
the ordnance department during the Civil War in this country. His cannon were used in 
many of the forts and on the monitors. The weight of the projectile in this gun was 450 
pounds, it had a muzzle velocity of 1,700 foot seconds, and its maximum range was 6,000 
yards. This was a wonderful gun for the time, and was a great improvement over the 
guns of a few decades before. 



AND THE NATIONS WEKE ANGRY 



289 



of death, even when it seems- almost certain that no one 
will come out alive. But, notwithstanding this courage 
that has never yet been wanting in soldiers, there is a 
feeling of dread in the hearts of men at the contempla- 




Courtesy Brig. Gen. William Crozier, Chief of Ordnance, U. S. Army. 

Modern 12-inch breech-loading rifle, mounted on Buffington-Crozier disappearing carriage. 
The photograph shows the gun in the firing position. The recoil when the gun is fired throws 
it down into the loading position, and the gunners load and aim the weapon behind the em- 
bankment, protected from the fire of the enemy. The 12-inch 45-caliber gun has a muzzle 
velocity of 2,700 foot seconds, and an effective range of 21,000 yards, and can be loaded and 
fired every thirty-six seconds. In 1897, when the old kind of powder was used, 300 seconds, 
or five minutes, was allowed between shots ; and if we go back to the old muzzle-loader of the 
Rodman type, it took in the neighborhood of a quarter of an hour to load and fire it. The 
velocity of the 12-inch gun in 1897 was 2,000 foot seconds, but the inventions and improvements 
in smokeless powder have enabled them to increase the length and power of the gun so that 
its striking energy has been increased about one third, and it is loaded and fired more than 
eight times as fast, and as stated elsewhere, it is aimed from twenty to twenty-five times as 
accurately. And furthermore, the 12-inch gun of 1897 has been replaced by guns of higher 
power, some of them being 14-inch and even 16-inch. One of the very latest throws a 2,400- 
pound shell a distance of twenty-three miles, and with the great efficiency of the up-to-date 
gunner, this is done with practically absolute accuracy. 

The little cannon on a post in the corner of the picture is one of the celebrated "ship's 
swivel-guns" used at the siege of Sebastopol in 1856, mentioned in General Delafield's report of 
his observations on that war. It was put on these posts so as to fire over the embankment. 
The disappearing gun is the improvement over the "swivel-gun," and presents quite a contrast. 
When these illustrations are understood, they are sufficient, without any words, to show the mar- 
velous advance in the art of war in half a century. 

19 



290 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

tion of the fearful slaughter that will be made in the 
next great wars. 

The support and equipment of these great armies and 
navies are taxing the resources of the nations to the 
uttermost. This tax must ever become more and more 
burdensome, until the final crash is reached; for the ex- 
pensive navies and their equipments that were thoroughly 
up to date five years ago are now so far behind that they 
have to be almost entirely rebuilt. The equipments of 
the soldier that were the very best five years ago have 
to give place to more modern weapons instead. In this 
mad military race each country is anxious to keep abreast 
of the times; but, while it supplies the most perfect 
facilities to-day, there is no assurance that the papers 
to-morrow will not announce some new weapon that will 
render useless all the previous great expense incurred 
for the munitions of war. 

A few 7 statements from leading military men and 
statesmen will be both interesting and instructive in show- 
ing how they view the war situation at this time. Gen- 
eral Nelson A. Miles, commander of the United States 
Army, after his inspection of the armies of the Old 
World, said: 

"I have seen all the great armies of Europe except 
the Spanish army. What I have seen does not indicate 
that the millennium is at hand, when swords will be 
beaten into plowshares. . . . There are two impres- 
sions entertained by many of our people that, in my 
opinion, are not well founded, even if they can not be 
regarded as illusions; and they are certainly entitled to 
full and impartial consideration. One is that we have 
reached the millennium, that -the world has become suf- 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY 291 

ficiently enlightened to abhor war and to settle all its 
national and international affairs on intelligent and hu- 
mane principles. What facts warrant such a pleasing 
sentiment, belief, or hope? The heralds of time that re- 
cord the passing years and months record also national 
strife and wars in some part of the world. There never 
was a time in the whole history of the world when so 
much ingenuity, wealth, and skill were employed in the 
invention and construction of appliances of war." 

The great German military leader, Von Moltke, in 
describing the war struggles and preparations of recent 
years, wrote thus: 

" Generally speaking, it is no longer the ambition of 
monarchs which endangers peace, but the impulses of 
a nation, its dissatisfaction with its internal conditions, 
the strife of parties, and the intrigues of their leaders. 
The great wars of recent times have been declared against 
the wish and will of the reigning powers. To-day the 
question is not so much whether the nation is strong 
enough to make war as whether its government is power- 
ful enough to prevent war." 

At the beginning of 1896 Mr. Franklin Matthews wrote 
the following, and his graphic statements remind us of 
similar conditions that have kept the world trembling 
on the crumbling brink of international and world-wide 
war in every one of the years that have followed: 

"The new year opened with the long roll in the armed 
camps of Europe. It sounded also through the United 
States, and its echoes reverberated against the moun- 
tains and in the valleys of Venezuela and every other coun- 
try on the American continent. The clash of arms was 
heard in South Africa, and the eyes of every nation were 



292 HEKALDS OF THE MOKNING 

fixed intently on Great Britain. Armenia and its horrors 
were forgotten. Would England fight ? The great, proud, 
boastful England was face to face with as great a crisis 
as any nation in modern times has ever met. She was 
alone, and the war-dogs of every other country were 
almost eager to jump at her throat. Her people had 
sung, 'Britannia Rules the Waves,' until the nation had 
almost felt herself invincible. 

"The United States earl} 7 in December challenged this 
haughty spirit. England's mock heroics and suppressed 
laughter at the audacity of this country were soon changed 
to astonishment at the serious situation; and then it was 
seen that no nation, England especially, could afford to 
engage in conflict with this country. Then Germany, 
apparently with no other purpose than to humiliate the 
greatest commercial nation on the globe, practically threw 
down the gage of battle by an announcement that ' Eng- 
land must give up her protectorate of the Transvaal 
Republic. The English people, outraged by what they 
deemed an insult, and maddened almost to desperation, 
simply waited for a single hostile move on the part of 
Germany's emperor to touch a match to her guns, and 




Courtesy Brig. Gen. William Crozier, Chief of Ordnance, U. S. Army. 
3-inch field gun. Field guns of this size fire a projectile weighing fifteen pounds, with a 
velocity of 1,700 foot seconds, and a range of 7,010 yards (about four miles). The energy of 
this projectile as it leaves the gun would lift 301 tons one foot high. The 12-pounder smooth 
bore of Civil War times had a range of only 1,680 yards, or less than a mile. The 3-inch naval 
gun is 50 calibers long, has a muzzle velocity of 2,700 foot seconds, and a range of 8,500 yards 
(about five miles), and can be fired every 4.8 seconds. A battery of these modern 3-inch guns 
would have been the terror of the world fifty years ago. 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY 



293 



let the havoc of probably such a war as the world never 
saw run through Europe. 

"Then it was that the long roll sounded. Russia set 
her eyes toward Constantinople, France set hers toward 
Egypt, Germany set hers toward England's colonies, and 
the sultan trembled again when he realized that the 
Armenian atrocities had not been forgotten. 

"Every war-office in Europe went over its plans of 
strategy. Every plan of mobilization was scrutinized. 
Every nation took account of its stock, of its munitions 




Copyright 1908 by T. 0. Mutter. 
One pounder rapid-fire gun on deck of ship making a record of 72 shots a minute. T+ 
has a muzzle velocity of 2,000 feet a second and a range of two miles. Even this smaller' 
of the naval guns couiu nave kept out of the range and made pepper-boxes of the "sloops of 
war" of fifty or sixty years ago. 



294 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

of war, and of its financial strength. The nervous strain 
of keeping peace, with millions of soldiers ready to fight 
at any time, seemed to be exhausted, and the people be- 
gan to ask if it were possible to prevent the flames of 
international jealousy and hate from bursting forth into 
strife, with practical anarchy and chaos as the price to 
be paid for it. 7 ' 

Mr. William E. H. Lecky says: 

''With the present gigantic armies, w T ars have, no 
doubt, become less frequent, though they have become in- 
comparably more terrible; but can any one seriously con- 
tend that the unrestrained and reckless military compe- 
tition of the last few years has given Europe any real 
security, or that either the animosities or the aspirations 
that threaten it have gone down? Are its statesmen confi- 
dent that an ambitious monarch, or a propitious moment, 
or an alliance, or an invention that materially changes the 
balance of forces, or some transient outburst of national 
irritation judiciously treated, might not at any moment 
set it once more in a blaze? To strew gunpowder on all 
sides may, no doubt, produce caution, but it is not the 
best way of preventing an explosion." — "Democracy and 
Liberty/' Vol. 1, pp. 306, 312, 313. 

As long ago as May, 1894, the Review of Reviews 
said the following concerning Europe's costly armaments: 

"The European nations are beginning to droop and 
totter beneath the ever-accumulating burden of military 
expenditure. There is hardly a country among them 
that is not at the present time struggling desperately to 
choke the deficit which is staring it in the face. In Eng- 
land, Sir William Harcourt was £5,000,000 short, which 
must be provided for by new taxation. The Indian Em- 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY 295 

pire is proposing to tax all imports except cotton five 
per cent ad valorem to meet its deficit, besides adopting 
other expedients unpopular but necessary. In France 
there is a deficit of nearly $30,000,000, about half of 
which it is proposed to cover by a refunding of loans 
at a lower rate of interest, and the remaining half is 
to be obtained by increased taxation on incomes and 
spirits, with taxes on succession duties. In Italy the new 
finance minister frankly admits the existence of a deficit 
of about $50,000,000 to be met, no one knows how. The 
country can not bear increased taxation, and the chances 
of any minister who ventured to propose retrenchment 
and the disbanding of surplus employees would be prac- 
tically worthless. Everywhere the statesmen are seeking 
with feverish anxiety for new sources of revenue, but 
everywhere the insatiable maw of armaments demands 
more and more millions." 

It is no surprise that such unparalleled preparations 
for war should have caused the Marquis of Salisbury to 
state : 

"What would you say is the great change that has 
passed over Europe since the older of us were young 
men ? — It is this tremendous increase in the burdens which 
the necessity of self-defense has cast upon every nation 
of the world. That burden goes on getting higher and 
higher; a larger and larger part of the population is de- 
voted to military service ; more and more money has to 
be spent in the provision of mechanical apparatus of 
war; and as the conquests of science are extended, not 
only are all previous efforts determined to be obsolete, 
and have to be thrown away, and something new intro- 
duced in their place, but a larger and larger proportion 



296 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

of public wealth has to be devoted to this unremunerative 
purpose. 

"The burden has become so serious to many nations 
that many have thought that the day will come when na- 
tions will rather rush into war and provoke a decision 
once for -all, than to continue to groan under the suffering 
which modern necessity forces upon them." 

In a later speech he further said upon this subject: 
"We have had an invitation from his imperial majesty 
the emperor of Russia, to attend a congress for the dis- 
armament of the nations. I offer a most hearty tribute 
to the motive by which that invitation has been dictated. 
1 admire the character which can have produced it; and 
as far as assistance and sympathy from us can help him 
in the task he has undertaken, that assistance and sym- 
pathy are entirely at his disposal. But while we earnestly 
concur with him in his views and desires, we may be 
permitted to think that until the happy days have arrived 
when his aspirations are crowned with success, we must 
still have regard to the dangers that surround us, and 
provide the precautions which are necessary. [Cheers!] 
In some respects the era of this great proposition, which 
I think will be an epoch in the history of men — the era 
of this great proposition has been marked by unhappy 
omens. It is the first year in which the mighty force of 
the American Republic has been introduced among the 




Courtesy Brig. Gen. William Crozier, Chief of Ordnance, TJ. S. Army. 

The United States rifled percussion musket, caliber .58, model of 1861. It fired an elongated 
lead bullet which weighed about 480 grains, with a charge of 60 grains of musket powder. 
Two or three shots a minute could be fired from it, and the sight was graduated at first up to 
500 yards and later to 700 yards. 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY 297 

nations whose dominion is expanding and whose instru- 
ments, to a certain extent, are war. I am not implying 
the slightest blame — far from it — I am not refusing sym- 
pathy to the American Republic in the difficulties through 
which they have passed; but no one can deny that their 
appearance among the factors of Asiatic, at all events, 
and possibly of European, diplomacy, is a grave and 
serious event, which may not conduce to the interests 
of peace, though I think that in any event it is likely 
to conduce to the interests of Great Britain. [Hear! 
Hear!] 

"But what has been pressed upon us is that the sub- 
ject-matter of war is terribly prevalent on all sides. You 
see nations who are decaying, or whose government is 
so bad that they can neither maintain the power of self- 
defense nor the affections of their subjects. You see this 
on all sides, and you also see that when the phenomenon 
takes place there are always neighbors who are impelled 
by some motive or other — it may be from the highest 
philanthropy, it may be from the natural desire of em- 
pire — are always inclined and disposed to contest with 




Courtesy of Brig. Gen. William Crozier, Chief of Ordnance, 77. S. Army. 



United States magazine rifle, caliber .30, model of 1903, chambered for model of 1906 am- 
munition, and provided with model of 1905 sight. This rifle has also a detachable knife bayo- 
net, and fires a 150 grain bullet which has a core of lead and tin composition, enclosed in a 
jacket of cupro-nickel. The point of the bullet is much sharper and offers less resistance to the 
air than that of any previous model. The bullets are carried five in a brass clip from which they 
are readily and quickly placed in the magazine, and a "cut-off" enables the soldier to use the 
rifle either as a single-loader or a repeater. 

The velocity of the bullet is 2,700 feet per second, and the sights are graduated from 100 
yards to 2,850 yards; the computed maximum range of the arm is 5,465 yards, and a telescopic 
sight is being provided for the expert rifleman that will enable him to use the gun to its full 
range. Twenty-five aimed shots have been fired from this rifle in one minute, and, firing from 
the hip without aim, thirty-five shots in one minute. 

Note the tremendous increase in range, power, and rapidity of fire over the musket with 
which the war of the Rebellion was fought only about half a century ago. 



298 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

each other as to who shall be the heir to the nation which 
is falling away from its old position. And that is the 
cause of war. Still more serious is the consideration which 
recent events have forced upon us that these w T ars come 
upon us absolutely unannounced and with terrible rapidity. 
The war-cloud rises in the horizon with a rapidity that 
obviates all calculation, and, it may be, a month or two 
months after the first warning you receive you find you 
are engaged in or in prospect of a war on which your 
very existence is staked. 

"Let us remember we are a great colonial and mari- 
time power. There have been great colonial and mari- 
time powers, four or five, but they have always fallen, 
because they had a land frontier by which their enemies 
could approach, and by which their metropolis could be 
struck. We have no such land frontier; but if we ever 
allow our defenses at sea to fall to such a point of in- 
efficiency that it is as easy, or nearly as easy, to cross 
the sea as it. is to cross a land frontier, our great empire, 
stretching to the ends of the earth, supported by maritime 
force in every part of it, will come clattering to the ground 
when a blow at the metropolis in England is struck. Our 
whole existence, — not only our whole prosperity, but the 
whole fabric by which our millions are nourished and 
sustained, — they all depend on our being able to defend 
our own shores against attack, and that ability depends 
on our power at any moment of summoning to our aid 
a maritime force far larger than any opponent can bring 
to bear against us. If you will think out these ideas, 
you will see why we can not admit that in the present 
state and temper of the world we can intermit our naval 
and military precautions. They must be kept constantly 
on foot." 



AXD THE XATIOXS WERE ANGRY 299 

As late as 1908 Mr. Asquith, the prime minister of 
England, said: 

"I can not indulge the hope that the youngest person 
now alive will witness the advent of the day of universal 
disarmament. I am not impressed by the contention that 
the completeness of the mechanism of destruction and the 
vastness of the scale on which war is organized will pre- 
vent statesmen and diplomats from light-heartedly indul- 
ging in war. The expenditure of civilized nations for 
armaments is now roughly $2,000,000,000 a .year. The 
nations do not buy these things for ornament. They are 
intended for use, and some day they will be let loose 
upon the world." 

The foregoing statements from leading men of national 
and international reputation are not designed to be ex- 
haustive, neither has it been the aim to get the most 
striking utterances. The aim has been to get represent- 
ative statements, and to present existing facts in such a 
way that it may be clearly seen that the conditions of 
this time are a literal fulfilment of the predictions of 
Him who can read the future far more clearly than we 
read history. 

This war spirit is ever growing more and more intense. 
The facts presented beneath the various illustrations in 
this chapter are a striking evidence of the awful truth 
that the " spirits of demons" have been most literally 
successful in their efforts to lead the nations fairly to 
exhaust themselves in preparing for war. 

The official figures as presented in the Hague Peace 
Congress in 1907 show that in eight of the leading nations 
of the world the military expenses between 1897 and 1907 
have increased as follows: 



300 HEEALDS OF THE MORNING 

Italy from $ 46,800,000 to $ 57,200,000 

Austria " 73,400,000 ' < 94,400,000 

Great Britain " 90,600,000 ' ' 148,800,000 

France " 129,000,000 l ' 144,400,000 

Eussia • " 151,200,000 ' ' 209,400,000 

Germany " 159,800,000 ' ' 215,200,000 

Japan " 32,800,000 ' ' 56,800,000 

United States " 42,800,000 ' ' 91,200,000 



5,600,000 " 


6,400,000 


109,000,000 " 


167,800,000 


51,000,000 " 


62,400,000 


" 31,800,000 " 


47,800,000 


" 21,800,000 " 


66,600,000 


" 27,800,000 " 


41,200,000 


" 30,800,000 " 


107,200,000 



Totals . < < $726,400,000 ' ' $1,017,400,000 

Increase in ten years of the annual army expense, 
$291,000,000. 

The same nations have also made the following in- 
crease in their annual naval expenditure: 

Italy . . * from $ 19,800,000 to $ 27,800,000 

Austria 

Great Britain 

France 

Bussia 

Germany 

Japan 

United States 

Totals " $297,600,000 ' ' $527,200,000 

The increase, for the ten years, of the annual naval 
expenses of these eight nations, is $229,600,000; and this, 
added to the increase of the annual expenses of the armies, 
makes over half a billion dollars a year expended in 1907 
over and above what was expended ten years before. 
And that was the decade that was marked by its inter- 
national peace congresses and its local peace conferences. 
What might the results have been if those efforts had 
not been put forth to stay the tide of war sentiment! 
The foregoing figures were given to the world through 
the Hague Congress, with the hope that their awful sig- 
nificance would assist in curbing this seemingly uncon- 
trollable spirit of war. But the increasing appropriations 
have been going right on. Among the many authoritative 
statements that could be made upon the subject, read 
the following from the London Daily News of Oct. 11, 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY 301 

1911: "The last ten years, which have been a decade 
without parallel for magnitude of naval expenditure, have 
also been a decade almost without parallel for interna- 
tional strain and anxiety. They haA r e been one pro- 
longed period of crisis, now latent, now threatening to 
explode, and the nations have sat in hourly expectation 
that the dogs of war would he let loose/' 

On Nov. 27, 1911, Sir Edward Grey, England's secre- 
tary of state for foreign affairs, addressed the House 
of Commons on the "relations of Great Britain and Ger- 
many."* In this address were these words: "It is really 
as if, in the atmosphere of the world, there were some 
mischievous influence at work which troubles and excites 
every part* of it. We are passing, this year, through a 
period of great excitement; it is so still. Some coun- 
tries are in revolution, others are at war; and in several 
countries which are neither in revolution nor at war, there 
are people who seem to delight in discussing how near they 
have been, or are, or are likely to be, either to revolution 
or to war in the past, the present, or the future. Really 
it is as if the world were indulging in a fit of political 
alcoholism, and the best that can be done by those of us 
who are in positions of responsibility is to keep cool 
and sober." 

In the first part of this chapter Rev. 16 : 13, 14 is 
quoted to tell of the spirits of demons that would go to 
the kings of the whole world to arouse them to war. 
With this text in mind, how significant are the fore- 
going utterances from Mr. Grey, particularly what he 
says concerning the "mischievous influence" which seems 
to be in "the atmosphere of the world" and "which 
troubles and excites every part of it"! 



302 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



Upon the subject of the feverish activity and rapid 
development of the instruments of war, the Scientific 
American says: 

"We do not recall any product of human industry 
which, as the years go by, depreciates so rapidly in value 
as the war-ship. Great Britain awoke to this fact and 
acted upon it in the most trenchant way when she swept 
over 100 war-ships off the list and placed them under the 
auctioneer 's hammer. ' ' 

In harmony with the foregoing utterance, let it be 
said that we seem right on the eve of developments that 




Courtesy "McClure's Magazine." 



CLAUDE CRAHAME-WHITE MAKING A FLIGHT DOWN EXECUTIVE AVENUE IN 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

The "heavier than air" air-ship, or aeroplane. There are numerous models of these aero- 
planes — monoplanes, biplanes, and even triplanes, of scores of shapes and differing features. 
But they are now of such assured practicability that they are an essential part of the 
armies and navies of all the leading nations of the world. They are to be used as scouts 
on both land and sea for keeping track of the enemies' movements, and also for dropping 
bombs. It is not very pleasant to contemplate a fleet of hostile air-ships sailing over our 
cities and dropping inflammable and explosive bombs. But such are the actualities that 
confront us in this war-mad age. 



AND THE NATIONS WEEE ANGRY 



303 



will make guns of all calibers noiseless, flashless, and 
smokeless. 

Rear-Admiral Watt, chief constructor and chief of 
Bureau of Construction and Repair of the United States 
navy, is authority for the statement that the effectiveness 
of naval gunnery between 1898 and 1912 had increased 
1,200 times. This is not a rough, hasty guess. The 
statement is made through the columns of the Scientific 
American, and is a deliberate affirmation based upon in- 
telligent and experienced calculation. In 1898 the larg- 
est battle-ships had no more than four of the largest guns ; 
now (1912) they have ten, and some of the latest twelve. 
Then the effective range of these guns was from two to 
three miles; now the range is from seven to ten miles, 




Courtesy "Popular Mechanics." 

The six-passenger aeroplane-cab constructed for M. Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe, patron of 
aviation, which made a successful flight, piloted by M. Legagneux. 



304 HEKALDS OF THE MOKNING 

with some of the large coast defense guns much greater. 
Then the big gun could be loaded and fired only once in 
three to five minutes; now it is fired twice in one minute. 
Then the gunner could not score more than about four 
per cent of hits — his gunnery was largely guesswork ; now, 
with his perfected appliances, he seldom misses his target. 
Such facts as the foregoing are what has led Admiral 
Watt deliberately to make the assertion that the effective- 
ness of naval gunnery w r as 1,200 times greater in 1912 
than in 1898. 

To attain such results there is kept up the most in- 
tense competition. The watchword with the ship's crew 
is that the first five minutes of battle under modern con- 
ditions is likely to decide the issue. In loading and firing 
the guns, not merely seconds but fractions of seconds 
are taken into account. In the practise drills, if a man, 
in passing ammunition, or doing an}^ other part of the 
work about the guns, is found to " fumble," or is not 
sure-footed, he is immediately replaced by some one else. 
Every one is nerved to the highest tension of speed and 
accuracy. The single second lost by any kind of slip 
might let the enemy place the first telling blow. Hence 
drilling to the utmost limit must be kept up. 

The men seem to enjoy it, and enter it with enthusiasm. 
O, that they might sense the meaning of what they are 
doing ! 

Wars previous to the beginning of the present cen- 
tury were confined to the land and the surface of the sea, 
but now we have added the vessels that navigate under 
the water and also those that float in the air. Without re- 
gard to what developments the immediate future may 
bring out, we know that already we are confronted with 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY 



305 



sufficient fact to make it plain that the next war between 
first-class powers will be fought by armies on land and 
by fleets that sail on the ocean and under the ocean and 
in the air. 

More need not be said to show that the military spirit 
is one of the ruling passions of the age. And when we 
note the terribly destructive implements that have been 
devised, how vivid and impressive are the words of the 
prophet as he views these scenes and describes these times ! 
He says: "My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at 
my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I can 
not hold my peace; because thou hast heard, O my soul, 
the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction 
upon destruction is cried ; for the whole land is laid waste : 
suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a 
moment." Jer. 4:19, 20. 

What burning emotions must have been surging in the 









\ 








'Jht 


J3aSM\ t^f 




*M& 


_ -i***'?""^ . . . \ 


«jLii.jJin 




"•-•'* if LLltSr* Jm 








OPB 








**ti^SSi~*r 


^^U 





















Court ery "Popular Mechanics. 
AEROPLANE GUN. 

New gun designed for the German army as a protection against air craft. 



20 



306 HEKALDS OF THE MOKNING 

mind of Jeremiah when he exclaimed, "I can not hold 
my peace; because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound 
of the trumpet, the alarm of war"! The terrible scenes 
of the " battle of that great day" were passing before 
his vision. He hears the "alarm of war"; the awful 
weapons that, under the insane fur}^ of demons, have been 
forged against the day of Armageddon, are doing their 
terrible work; city after city is demolished under the 
frightful hammering of shot and shell; ship after ship 
goes down with dead-strewn decks; regiment after regi- 
ment is mowed down by the swift scythe of the war-god; 
the earth is burdened with its dead; the homes of the 
people are in desolation; and sorrow is on every hand. 
It is the sight of these things in prophetic review that 
stirs the intensest emotion of the prophet's soul. 

How impressively must the very scenes of war prep- 
aration in which we now dwell, have been caused to pass 
before the prophet Joel when he wrote : ' i Proclaim ye this 
among the nations ; prepare war ; stir up the mighty men ; 
let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat 
your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into 
spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye, and 
come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves 
together: thither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, O 
Jehovah. Let the nations bestir themselves, and come 
up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to 
judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle; 
for the harvest is ripe: come, tread ye; for the wine-press 
is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. 
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! for 
the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision. ' ' 
Joel 3: 9-14. 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY 307 

The first appropriation for agriculture made by this 
country was in 1839, amounting to $1,000. Since that 
time, up to and including 1908, the appropriations for 
agriculture have amounted to nearly $96,000,000. Thus 
more is spent by the United States each year on her 
army and navy than she has spent in all her history on 
her Department of Agriculture. This fact is quite in 
harmony with conditions in other nations. It would be 
superfluous to say that these figures show how literally 
the plowshare and the pruning-hook have been sacrificed 
in order that the sword and the spear may be strength- 
ened to meet the warlike spirit of the age. It should not 
be difficult to see the bearing of the foregoing prophecy 
when viewing it in the light of uncontested facts. 

Also please read again the following scriptures, and 
listen to the Spirit of God as He impresses them upon 
the conscience: "And the nations were wroth, and Thy 
wrath came, and the time of the dead to be judged, and 
the time to give their reward to Thy servants the prophets, 
and to the saints, and to them that fear Thy name, the 
small and the great; and to destroy them that destroy 
the earth." Eev. 11: 18. "And I saw coming out of the 
mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, 
and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean 
spirits, as it were frogs: for they are spirits of demons, 
working signs ; which go forth unto the kings of the whole 
world, to gather them together unto the war of the great 
day of God, the Almighty." Rev. 16:13, 14. 

Who can read these clear words of God, and not be 
deeply impressed that they are now having a most literal 
fulfilment? Listen, I entreat you, to the voice of God 
speaking to the soul by His Spirit through His word. Do 



308 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

not heed those who in this time of peril are saying, " Peace 
and safety," who are asserting that this world is about 
to join in a universal peace. Even amid the din of these 
last-day preparations for war, the voice that falsely 
assures peace will be raised higher and higher. But mark 
that the word of God forewarns us in clear and positive 
language : i ' When they are saying, Peace and safety, then 
sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon 
a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape. 
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should 
overtake you as a thief." 1 Thess. 5:3, 4. Men who have 
not been enlightened by the word of God's prophecy are 
"saying, Peace and safety" to-day. Contrary to all the 
facts and evidences, they are telling us that the world 
is to have no more war. God's word shows that this is 
the calm before the bursting of the terrible storm of 
" sudden destruction." 

It may be possible, if one sets out to look for them, 
to find human interpretations and speculations that will 
apparently set aside these plain words of Jehovah. But 
you are urgently invited to consider the interpretation 
that the Spirit of God is impressing upon your conscience 
as you read the foregoing scriptures and compare them 
with the things that you see in the world to-day. The 
interpretation that God's Spirit places upon God's own 
word is what you will have to meet in the Judgment. 

As we read the words of the Lord, an unseen mes- 
senger is continually whispering conviction away down 
deep in that consciousness that no human mind can pene- 
trate, and where God alone can enter. Under the spell 
of unbelief you may deny this; yet even while you are 
making your denial, the voice keeps on with its sweet,, and 



AND THE NATIONS WERE ANGRY 309 

tender, and refined, and quiet entreaties. This very whis- 
pering of your heavenly Father, as He emphasizes and 
impresses the import of His words upon the very depths 
of your conscience, is the evidence that He entreats you 
to consider. We can not turn away from these tender 
pleadings, these faithful warnings, without bringing upon 
ourselves the most terrible consequences. 

Note with clearness that this voice must come to you 
in and through the very words of the Bible. Impres- 
sions that come in any other way may be the insinuations 
of the enemy of truth; but this enemy can not use the 
Bible in his work, unless he takes the words of Jehovah 
and misconstrues them so as to throw them into a setting 
of vague mystery. God alone can speak through His 
own word clearly, plainly, convincingly, and with all the 
shadows of mystifications swept aside. He has arranged 
it this way so that, even if we stand in the presence of 
a full realization of all the issues of eternity, yet may 
we possess the joys of that abiding security that can be 
found only in resting upon the solid foundations of Om- 
nipotence. 

It is because the world is to-day facing the conditions 
that will drive it in a very little while upon that terrible 
and final battle-field of Armageddon, that it is so ear- 
nestly hoped and urged that God's word may have a 
chance to do for you the work that He designs it should. 
There is no question about the clearness of the Scripture 
prophecy. The only uncertainty lies in the matter of 
the heed that men will give to these plain words. There 
could be no uncertainty in giving heed to these portent- 
ous conditions that are in the world to-day, if men would 
take time to weigh the evidence. 




CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE 




OTWITHSTANDING the war madness that is in 
the world to stir up the marshaling of these great 
armies and navies, and cause their equipment with 
these modern munitions of destruction, a general crash 
among the nations has so far been averted. But let no 
one be calmed by the thought that, the war spirit having 
been held back from serious outbreaks, the general on- 
slaught therefore may never come. There is a mighty 
hand holding the forces of evil in check, until "this 
gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world." 
Every one must have the opportunity to hear the mes- 
sage of salvation, and until this work is accomplished 
the Lord will hold back the demons of war so that they 
can not precipitate the world-wide strife. In assurance 
of this we have the following words of the prophet: 

"And after these things I saw four angels standing 
on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds 
[strife, war, commotion] of the earth, that the wind should 
not blow on. the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. 
And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having 
the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice 

310 



DIVINE RESTRAINT OF THE SPIRIT OF WAR 311 

to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the 
earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither 
the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of 
our God in their foreheads." Eev. 7:1-3. 

c ' Wind" and " winds," in these symbolic prophecies, 
denote war and strife, and this scripture not only gives 
added evidence of the warlike condition of the world at 
the close of time, but also informs us that these "winds," 
or "wars," are held by the mighty angel of God till His 
work is accomplished of seeking out and "sealing" those 
who will accept Him. 

Elsewhere in these pages it has already been pointed 
out that the wickedness of the age is calling for the re- 
tributive judgments of God. Over and over again is the 
warning given through the prophets that those who per- 
sist in the iniquities of these last days will be visited 
by the hand of justice from on high. And the foregoing 
verses from Revelation show that God has commissioned 
certain angels "to hurt the earth and the sea," but their 
work is held in check while God's message of salvation 
and sealing is being accomplished. 

Thus may it be seen that the hurting of the earth 
and the sea will not reach its most violent stages until 
after the gospel message has finished its work. For not 
only is mankind being filled with the spirit of strife, 
violence and war, but the "earth and the sea" are in com- 
motion ; there are earthquakes and volcanoes, tornadoes, 
and hailstorms, hurricanes and tidal waves. But none of 
these things are allowed to go unrestrained while the Lord 
still has a work to do in the earth. The restraining hand 
of God is over the convulsions of nature as well as the 
violence of men. 



312 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

In this connection it is well to call attention to the 
great calamities in storm and earthquake and avalanche 
that have visited this world in so many places dur- 
ing very recent years. And although these calamities 
have been so destructive of property, and in the later ones 
of life, yet it is very remarkable that so few were killed, 
when compared with the vast multitudes who were so 
openly exposed to the dangers, but who were passed over 
unharmed. 

It is perfectly apparent that God's angels are doing 
their appointed work. They are restraining the destruc- 
tive forces that stand ready to break loose. But when 
this divine restraint is withdrawn because the vast mul- 
titude has resisted the warnings and entreaties of the 
merciful Father until their time of probation is closed, 
then will there be scenes in this world too terrible to 
describe. And it is to save men from this that the Lord has 
bidden His messengers hold the winds of strife while He 
pleads with them to hasten to the shelter He has provided. 

In Ezekiel's prophecy this sealing work is also pre- 
sented: "Then He cried in mine ears with a loud voice, 
saying, Cause ye them that have charge over the city 
to draw near, every man with his destroying weapon in 
his hand. And behold, six men came from the way of 
the upper gate, which lieth toward the north, every man 
with his slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man in 
the midst of them clothed in linen, with a writer's ink- 
horn by his side. And they went in, and stood beside the 
brazen altar. And the glory of the God of Israel was 
gone up from the cherub, whereupon it was, to the thresh- 
old of the house: and He called to the man clothed in 
linen, who had the writer's inkhorn by his side. And 



DIVINE RESTRAINT OF THE SPIRIT OF WAR 313 

Jehovah said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, 
through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon 
the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all 
the abominations that are done in the midst thereof. And 
to the others He said in my hearing, Go ye through the 
city after him, and smite : let not your eye spare, neither 
have ye pity; slay utterly the old man, the young man 
and the virgin, and little children and women; but come 
not near any man upon whom is the mark: and begin 
at My sanctuary. Then they began at the old men that 
were before the house." Eze. 9:1-6. 

Those who have the mark, or seal, are preserved from 
the destruction. But note that the ones who are thus 
marked to be sheltered from the hand of the destroying 
angel are those who " sigh and . . . cry over all the abomi- 
nations that are done in the midst thereof." These sigh- 
ing and crying ones find no pleasure in the sins, and vices, 
and follies, that are bringing down the righteous judg- 
ments of God. They are distressed because of this evil 
that is cursing the world, and so are crying out against 
it, and doing all in their power to arrest it. This places 
them in harmony with their Father in heaven, and so 
He seals them as His own. 

Some one may say that these verses of Ezekiel are 
written against Jerusalem and the Jews of old. But it 
has already been pointed out that Paul has clearly and 
plainly told us that "all these things happened unto them 
for ensamples: and the}^ are written for our admonition, 
upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore 
let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." 
1 Cor. 10 : 11, 12. 

God's word was not written for any particular age 
or for any special people; it is for all time and for all 



314 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

peoples. It states great principles of truth that, like 
the law of gravitation, are always operative with unerring 
and unswerving precision. The One who made the ac- 
curate laws of nature has also given us the equally accu- 
rate divine Book. And Jerusalem of old, when she had 
turned from the living God, and given herself up to vices 
and crime, is set forth in type to show the divine purpose 
concerning all the wicked cities at the close of time. 

In doing the work of holding the " winds" of war 
the Lord makes use of many agencies. He has many men 
and women everywhere whose whole being revolts at the 
atrocities, the cruelties, and the brutalities of war. It is 
wonderful how they have filled the world with diplomats 
who have been so successful in bringing about " peace 
congresses," and creating peace sentiment that often holds 
rulers by the sheer force of shame from involving their 
dominions in war. These disciples of peace, whether found 
among men who have charge of the diplomatic affairs 
of state or in the realm of the pulpit or the press, must 
be sustained in their heaven-appointed work. 

We must not, however, make the mistake of confusing 
those who are thus working for the peace of the world 
with that other class, who, without any reason, are telling 
us that there is no danger ; who are saying that any one 
is a pessimist who points out w T ith distinctness the facts 
concerning the war-threat that hangs over our world. 
The individual who is intelligently working to hold the 
world in the embrace of peace recognizes what a difficult 
task it is. He clearly sees the dangers that threaten us; 
and seeing these dangers, he works with devotion, because 
of his love of mercy and hatred of brutality, to save his 
fellow men from the horrors of war. 



DIVINE RESTRAINT OF THE SPIRIT OF WAR 315 

When we take a careful view of the occurrences of 
recent times, it is clearly apparent that some unseen force 
is holding back the war-dogs, that they may not be turned 
loose upon the world. The news will come to us one day 
that all Europe is on the verge of war. Statesmen will 
gravely say that they do not see how it can be averted; 
but in a little while it is all hushed. Then in a few days 
or a few weeks there will come the rumors that the Orient 
is all astir, and affairs in China, Japan, or India must be 
settled on the battle-field. This, too, will be gravely dis- 
cussed for a brief space, only to subside and amount to 
nothing serious. In another little while things in South 
America, or in some other part of the globe, will create 
a great commotion, and all the. nations will review their 
resources of army and navy to see what they can do in 
case of a world's conflict. But here again God has men 
of strong mind and purpose, and of great skill and power, 
and the torrents of blood are not allowed to flow. On other 
occasions war will actually break out, and the great armies 
and navies will be put under motion, but in a little while 
all is calm again. Such things as these have not occurred 
in such a remarkable manner in bygone ages. Particular 
note should be made of these things, for they are fulfilling 
prophecy. God is indeed fulfilling His promise to hold 
the " winds" of war and strife until, as His prophetic 
word expresses it, "we have sealed the servants of our 
God in their foreheads." 

It is necessary to see all these things in their true 
prophetic light in order not to be deceived by any of 
the delusions and deceptive voices of this time. While 
listening to one of those who are saying "peace and 
safety" when the whole world is on the verge of "sudden 



316 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

destruction," unless we are enlightened by the prophecies, 
it is easy for us to fall in with his siren words, and look 
upon the efforts for peace as a sure evidence that we are 
to have no more w T ar. It is easy for us to be flattered by 
the thought that we of this day and age are too enlight- 
ened and too humane ever to take up arms; but theories 
and facts do not always agree, and what we need to do is 
to learn to look at the facts. We can not truly and clearly 
see the facts concerning our own times unless we keep 
standing beneath the great search-light of prophecy so 
that the focused rays of this brilliant luminary may cause 
us to perceive the true character of every shadow of 
darkness, through beholding the light of all-pervading 
foreknowledge. When we see the facts in their true light, 
and understand their meaning, we know that all these 
events that are mistaken for an evidence of a millennium 
of world-wide peace are nothing short of the indisputable 
evidence that God is fulfilling His prophetic promise to 
hold back the spirit of war till all can have a chance to 
hear and accept the " gospel of the kingdom" that is being 
preached u in all the world for a witness unto all nations." 
Reader, does it not fill you with wonder and gratitude 
that the Father of all mercies is so mindful of your eter- 
nal interest? For once these mighty engines of destruc- 
tion are set in motion, where is the power of mind that 
would enable one to turn away from the terror of the 
horrible massacre to seek and find salvation! The Lord 
has promised, and His promises are sure, to keep all who 
trust Him. By every means that divine and infinite love 
can suggest, He is inviting all to accept Him; and to as 
many as will receive Him the promise is : " He shall dwell 
on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of 



DIVINE KESTRAINT OF THE SPIRIT OF WAR 317 

rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. 
Thine eyes shall see the King in His beaut}^: they shall 
behold the land that is very far off." Isa. 33: 16, 17. 

"In that day shall this song be sung in the land of 
Judah ; We have a strong city ; salvation will God appoint 
for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the right- 
eous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou 
wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on 
Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord 
forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." 
Isa. 26 : 1-4. 

The dream of a universal peace can never be realized 
in this world while it is filled with wicked men; for "the 
wicked are like the troubled sea, when it can not rest, 
whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, 
saith my God, to the wicked." Isa. 57:20, 21. But of 
the Saviour, so soon to come in the clouds of heaven, the 
same prophet says: "The government shall be upon His 
shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Coun- 
selor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince 
of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace 
there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon 
His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment 
and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal 
of the Lord of hosts will perform this." Chapter 9:6, 7. 
And of the Prince of Peace the inspired poet says: 

"He will judge Thy people with righteousness. 
And Thy poor with justice. 
The mountains shall bring peace to the people, 
And the hills, in righteousness. 
He will judge the poor of the people, 
He will save the children of the needy, 



318 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

And will break in pieces the oppressor. 
They shall fear thee while the snn endureth, 
And so long as the moon, throughout all generations. 
He will come down like rain upon the mown grass, 
As showers that water the earth. 
In His days shall the righteous nourish, 
And abundance of peace, till the moon be no more. ' ' 

— Ps. 72 : 2-7. 

The day that is bursting upon us will be filled with 
terrors for him who is unprepared for it; but for him 
who has been reading and heeding the warnings and 
admonitions of the Father in heaven, it will be the glad- 
some day of all the ages. Let each one ask himself, On 
which side am I standing? If you are on the wrong side, 
do not tarry, but hasten to accept the lingering mercy 
and salvation that are still proffered. 

Who can say how soon the divine decree will cease to 
hold this angry strife in check? And when that day of 
universal and awful war and stormy commotion by land 
and by sea comes, we must be under the protection of the 
Infinite to avoid being borne down beneath the calamities 
and strifes. In these fleeting days of probationary time, 
each one should hasten to unite with the Saviour, not 
merely that he may be saved himself, but that he may be 
instrumental in guiding others to the shelter from the 
gathering storm. For let it be ever borne in mind that 
our God is calling for men to be soldiers indeed. While 
the demons of war are stirring men to become experts in 
spreading the desolations and sufferings of the battle- 
field, the Prince of Peace is also exerting His divine power 
to charm them with the entrancing and substantial joys 
that center in the eternity of bliss that His coming is 
about to bring to this world. And while imparting those 



DIVINE RESTRAINT OF THE SPIRIT OF WAR 



319 



joys to each individual who will accept them, He desires 
to make each recipient of His grace a true soldier to 
carry to the remotest corners of the earth the knowledge 
of salvation and the speedy return of the Lord. 

This is not the presentation of some mere theological 
theory; it is divine fact, woven so clearly into Bible 
prophecy, and fulfilled so unmistakably in the occurrences 
about us that there can be no mistaking it. The indi- 
vidual who knows these things is not left to the terrors 
of uncertainty as he stands in the face of unmistakable 
dangers and amid the dins of war alarms; he knows that 
he has a protection that is sure and all-powerful. And 
instead of being terrified or distressed, his mind is oc- 
cupied with the interesting study and pleasure of watch- 
ing the perfect fit that is made by occurring events to the 
plain predictions of God in His word. This joy that is 
indescribable is ours for the asking. 




the VOICE OF 















pit 









!fpSf-.;:fl 



*ife%#<^|||/ "\ ^ 



fii 




* CHAPTER 

TWENTY-FOUR 

W 

N the Lord's great prophecy of His second coming, 
as recorded by Luke, He says: "And there shall 
be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the 
stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with per- 
plexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts 
failing them for fear, and for looking after those things 
which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven 
shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of 
man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." 
Luke 21:25-27. 

320 




Mark these 
further signs that 
the Lord has 
given by which we 
may know of His coming. Not only has 
He told us, as seen m preceding chapters, what the char- 
acter of the people will be in the last days, and of the 
anger of the nations, etc., but He proceeds to describe 
the condition of the very elements at the close of time, 
with a definiteness that would be impossible without a per- 
fect foreknowledge of these events. He says, " There shall 
be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars;" 
also a " roaring' ' of "the sea and the waves." There has 
always been a " roaring" to "the sea and the waves." 
Hence when this prophecy is fulfilling, there will be 



321 



2] 



322 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

storms that will cause a commotion beyond anything 
seen before. And this very "roaring" of the elements 
will carry with it the unmistakable evidence and con- 
viction that the day of judgment is right at hand; for 
just as surely as God has given these things as signs of the 
coming day, just so surely will the conviction settle deeply 
into the heart that He is telling us by these things that 
His Son is soon to appear. The greatness of these ex- 
traordinary signs in the elements is graphically stated in 
verse 11 of this same chapter in Luke: "And great 
earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and 
pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall 
there be from heaven." 

Men inspired by Satan may attempt, as did the magi- 
cians in Moses' day, to set at naught some of the evidence 
God has given of the approaching end of time. But here 
are "signs" from "heaven," "fearful sights and great 
signs," so unmistakably clear that all not only may see, 
but must see ; and, seeing them, they can not escape the 
conviction of what they mean. The prophet Joel says: 

"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour 
out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your 
daughters shall prophecy, your old men shall dream 
dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon 
the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will 
I pour out My Spirit. And I will show wonders in the 
heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of 
smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the 
moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day 
of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that who- 
soever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be de- 
livered: for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be 



THE VOICE OF THE ELEMENTS 



323 



deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant 
whom the Lord shall call." Joel 2:28-32. 

Observe that the foregoing scripture states that all 
these great signs in "sun," "moon," and "earth" are to 
appear "before the great and the terrible day of the 




The eruption of Mont Pelee in the Island of Martinique, May 8, 1902. Among the many 
calamities that have marked the last few years this one stands in the front rank. 



324 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

Lord come/' Peter quotes this prophecy of Joel in full 
in Acts 2 : 16-21. He also makes clear the time when it 
applies; for he says, "It shall come to pass in the last 
days" that all these things will be seen. So, then, beyond 
a peradventure, the "last days" are to be especially dis- 
tinguished by "wonders in the heavens and in the earth, 
blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke." As these things are 
seen, the conviction deepens in every heart that "the great 
and the terrible day of the Lord" is right at hand. 

Isaiah testifies to the condition of the elements in the 
last days in language quite as forcible and pointed as 
that of Joel. He says: "Howl ye; for the day of the 
Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the 
Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every 
man's heart shall melt: and they shall be afraid: pangs 
and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in 
pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed 
one at another; their faces shall be as flames. Behold, 
the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and 
fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and He shall des- 
troy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven 
and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: 
the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon 
shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish 
the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; 
and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, 
and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will 
make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man 
than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake 
the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, 
in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of His 
fierce anger." Isa. 13:6-13. 



THE VOICE OF THE ELEMENTS 325 

This scripture also points to the time when "the day 
of the Lord is at hand;" and in harmony with scriptures 
noticed in preceding chapters, it shows that men, because 
of their iniquity, * ' arrogancy, " " pride, ' ' and ' ' haughti- 
ness," make it necessary for the Lord to pronounce the 
decree, "I will punish the world for their evil," and 




A portion of Union Street, San Francisco, after the earthquake, April 18, 1906. 

"destroy the sinners thereof out of it." But do not fail 
to note that this scripture says, "I will shake the heavens, 
and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath 
of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger." 
Thus this prophecy, too, forewarns us of a very great 
commotion in the "heavens" and in the "earth" when 
that great day is imminent, 



326 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



But hear Isaiah further: "Behold, the Lord maketh 
the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it 
upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. 
And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as 

with the servant, 
so with his mas- 
ter; as with the 
maid, so with 
her mistress; as 
with the buyer, 
so with the sell- 
er; as with the 
lender, so with 
the borrower ; as 
with the taker of 
usury, so with 
the giver of usu- 
ry to him. The 
land shall be ut- 
terly emptied, 
and utterly 
spoiled: for the 
Lord hath spo- 
ken this word. 
The earth 
mourneth and 
f a d e t h away, 
the world lan- 
guisheth and 
f adeth away, the 
haughty people 
of the earth do 




Redwood tree six feet in diameter, showing split made by 
the earthquake that visited San Francisco April 18, 1906. The 
tree was split to a height of 35 feet. The opening is wedge- 
shaped at the base, running from a width of eight inches on the 
side shown to a fine crack on the farther side. 



THE VOICE OF THE ELEMENTS 327 

languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants 
thereof ; because they have transgressed the laws, changed 
the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore 
hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell 
therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the 
earth are burned, and few men left. 

"From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard 
songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My lean- 
ness, my leanness, wo unto me! the treacherous dealers 
have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers 
have dealt very treacherously. Fear, and the pit, and the 
snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And it 
shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of 
the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up 
out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: 
for the windows from on high are open, and the founda- 
tions of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken 
down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved 
exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunk- 
ard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the trans- 
gression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, 
and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that 
day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones 
that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the 
earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners 
are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, 
and after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon 
shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the 
Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jeru- 
salem, and before His ancients gloriously. ' ' Isa. 24 : 1-6, 
16-23. 



328 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



Again in this scripture is the great sinfulness of 
earth's closing days presented. "The earth also is defiled 
under the inhabitants thereof; because they have trans- 
gressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the ever- 
lasting covenant," says the prophet. He states also that 
"the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, 
the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously ; ' ' 
and, speaking of the earth, he says, "The transgression 




^li^^ •*.'"' 



A steamer wharf at Hongkong, after the typhoon of July 29, 1908, in which 1,000 persons 
lost their lives. On May 28, 1908, there was a typhoon in Hankow in which another thousand 
lives were lost, and on Oct. 17, 1908, there were 5,000 more lost in a typhoon in Chang Chow. 

thereof shall be heavy upon it." Note, too, that this scrip- 
ture adds its testimony to the fact that the elements will 
be raging at the close of time. Observe its thrillingly 
clear statements: "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth 
empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down." 
And again, ' ' The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly 
spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word." Then 
follow the startling statements: "Fear, and the pit, and 
the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And 




A village that stood on the edge of a cliff, racked by the earthquake in Calabria, Oct. 23, 
1907. An earthquake in the same district spread great havoc in 1905. 



330 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise 
of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh 
up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare : 
for the windows from on high are open, and the founda- 
tions of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken 
down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved 
exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunk- 
ard, and shall be removed like a cottage." 

When the Lord is making the earth " empty" and 
" waste" and is turning it "upside down"; when the very 
" foundations of the earth do shake;" when it is " utterly 
broken down," and "clean dissolved"; when it is moved 
exceedingly" — aye, when "the earth shall reel to and fro" 
like the unsteady movements of the "drunkard," and 
"shall be removed like a cottage," surely then there will 
be a raging of the elements that will strike with terror 
every soul that is not safety anchored to the Rock of 
Ages. And who has not been impressed, when observing 
the fury of our modern hurricanes, tidal waves, and 
tornadoes, that these mighty storms, growing as they are 
so much more violent and frequent, are surely the be- 
ginning of the fulfilment of these prophetic utterances? 
And while the "foundations of the earth" are shaking 
mightily under our feet, who has not felt the conviction 
that God was dealing in earnest with the children of men? 

On this same subject Jeremiah says: "I beheld the 
earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the 
heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, 
and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I 
beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of 
the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful 



THE VOICE OF THE ELEMENTS 



331 



place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were 
broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His 
fierce anger. For thus hath the Lord said, The whole 
land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. 
For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be 
black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and 




Scene in Papeete, Tahiti, after the storm and tidal wave, Feb. 7 and 8, 1906. 



will not repent, neither will I turn back from it." Jer. 
4:23-28. 

Thus the Scriptures proclaim over and over that "at 
the presence of the .Lord," "shall the earth mourn," the 
"heavens above be black," "the fruitful place" shall be 
turned into "a wilderness, and all the cities thereof" be 
' ' broken down. ' ' 








as 



"For thus hath the Lord said, 
The whole land shall be desolate; 
yet will I not make a full end." 

With these scriptures 
in mind, how impressive 
is the voice of the mod- 
ern hurricane and the 
tornado, whirling with 
such terrific fury 
to defy description, 
the shaking of 
the earth and 
the frightful 
and deafening ': m 
roar of the ti- x 
dalwave! Most 
of the people living 

to-day have not only seen such pictures as those on the 
accompanying pages, but have seen the furious lashing 
and twisting of the storms they represent. "For thus 




THE VOICE OF THE ELEMENTS 

hath the Lord said, The whole land shall be 
desolate; yet will I not make a full end. 
As these things appear, the conviction deepens 
in every heart that "the great and terrible 
day of the Lord" is nigh at hand. 

The reader is aware of the fact that 
there is no portion of the world now 
that is exempt from these ter- 
rific storms. During the 
history of all the past 
time prior to the mid- 
dle of the last cen- 
tury, comparatively 
few great storms are 
mentioned. But in 
the great storms, as 
in everything else 
that characterizes 
this remarkable age, 
there has been a most "The imwM 

, . in"'-' whirling with terrific 

marvelous increase, both fury. - 

in the frequency and the terrific fury of the tempes- 
tuous hurricanes that carry such destruction all along 
their track. Not alone the western prairies, but the 
more densely populated districts of the East, with the 
old historic countries of Europe and the Orient, feel the 
desolating power of the great tornadoes. The "cyclone 
cellars," and other places of refuge from these storms 
(a device, by the way, that our fathers knew nothing 
about), testify to the fear that has already been created 
in the minds of men by the desolation of the tornado. 
But there is a better refuge from raging storms than 



334 



HERALDS OF TPIE MORNING 



"roar" of the 



anything man can devise; and in every 

elements our ear should catch the call to flee to the strong 

Tower, the only Saviour. 

The reader is well aware of the great earthquakes and 
tornadoes that have visited destruction upon portions of 
some of the larger cities, as well as almost wholly des- 




Wreckage left in the track of the great hurricane which swept Ponce, Porto Rico. There 
were similar storms during 1908 in Oklahoma, Algeria, England, East Africa, Java, Spain, 
and Austrian Tyrol, in which a total of 838 lives were lost. 

troyed some of the smaller ones, during very recent years. 
This destruction which has been visited only in part 
upon the great cities, is yet to sweep over all before the 
close of time ; for we have been forewarned, in the scrip- 
tures quoted in this chapter, that "the fruitful place" 
shall become "a wilderness, and all the cities thereof" shall 
be "broken doivn at the presence of the Lord, and by His 
fierce anger. ' ' Jer. 4 : 26. The cities, more than any 



THE VOICE OF THE ELEMENTS 



335 



other part of the world, are the great centers of vice 
and corruption; and because of their gross wickedness, 
the Lord has given His unfailing word that they shall 
"all" he " broken down." 

This breaking down of the cities because of their 
wickedness will be done in part, no doubt, through the 




Wreckage in the pathway of the tornado which visited Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, 
on April 24, 1908. Tornadoes leaving similar destruction in their track during 1908 visited 
Texas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, Iowa, Portugal, and Hungary. 

violent acts of the men who inhabit them; but what their 
violence fails to do the overwhelming action of the ele- 
ments of nature will complete. God tells us that Sodom 
and Gomorrah, those cities of ancient time whose wicked- 
ness became so gross as to become a proverb, "are set 
forth as an example." Jude 7. The destruction of those 
ancient cities is not any more complete than that which 
the prophets tell us will be visited upon the debaucheries 



336 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

and sins of the cities of our day. It should be kept in 
mind constantly that this is not the statement of some 
theological theory; it is not the creed of some particular 
school. It is the presentation of literal facts that have 
for their foundation the authority of Him who not only 
knows the end from the beginning, but who is also the all- 
powerful One. If there was ever a time when it was 
proper to theorize and speculate, certainly it is not the 
case in this day; for we have facts and conditions that 
are too weighty and all-pervading in their importance 
for us to allow them to be obscured, even much less set 
aside, by mere theories. 

Not only are tornadoes and storms of that class in- 
creasing in violence and frequency, but the earthquake, 
the tidal wave, and volcanic commotions are becoming 
much more frequent, and are often felt nowadays in places 
where the " reeling to and fro "of the earth, was never 
known before. You have observed these great upheavals 
and demonstrations in nature; the Scriptures tell us what 
they signify. 

Special attention should be given to the remarkable 
activity and outbursting of volcanoes in these modern 
days. Not only have we had the terrific and destructive 
eruptions of volcanoes in certain locations, but we have 
had threatenings in many other localities that betoken 
the forces which are pent up and smoldering beneath. 

There are whole sections of the land that are kept in 
an almost constant tremble, and there is no knowing when 
or where the next outburst will be. 

It will not do to toss these things to one side by saying 
that such volcanic action has been prevalent over the earth 
to a greater or less extent during all past time. It is 



THE VOICE OF THE ELEMENTS 



337 



perfectly true that we have had eruptions of volcanoes, 
and earthquakes in past time that have completely des- 
troyed whole cities and large sections of the country. But 
these are only samples of the general destruction that has 
been decreed upon all the cities of this earth in this time 
when the " violence" of men has become great in the earth, 
in fulfilment of the Scripture predictions that have already 
been dwelt upon in the pages of this book. The earth is 
waxing old "like a garment," and we are about to witness 
such desolating destructions as have never been seen. 
They will not be confined to some small locality; they 
will be universal. 

These things are not mentioned to alarm, but to warn 
and to save. They are facts based upon authority. If you 
properly consider them, you may not only see the danger 
but may enter into the shelter that is provided against 
these times of peril and desolation. 

The hail-storms of modern 
times, while not so severe and 
destructive as they will be, 
are worthy of note in this 
connection. The Lord 
asked Job the question, 
' ' Hast thou entered 
into the treasures of 
the snow ? or hast thou 
seen the treasures of 
the hail, which I have 
reserved against the 
time of trouble, against 
the day of battle and 
war?" Job 38:22, 23. 




"Hast thou seen the 

treasures of the hail, which 

I have reserved against the time of 

trouble, against the day of battle and war?" 



22 



338 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



Then God has "treasures of hail" which He has "re- 
served against the time of trouble/' "the day of battle 
and war." This "time of trouble," "the day of battle 
and war," is now right upon us, and we should expect 
to see a beginning made in the casting out of those "treas- 
ures of hail" which God has "reserved against" this time. 




Breckenridge Hall, Galveston, Texas, after her great storm. 

Concerning these days of exceeding wickedness the Lord 
says, "Judgment also will I lay to the line, and right- 
eousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away 
the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the 
hiding-place." Isa. 28:17. 

These "treasures of hail" with which God is about to 
sweep away the refuge of lies are beginning to be brought 
out. It is not uncommon to read of storms of hail that 



THE VOICE OF THE ELEMENTS 339 

leave ruin in their track. But the climax of the destruc- 
tions of the desolating hail will not be reached until 
we come to the time of the pouring out of the seventh 
and last one of the seven last plagues. Of that time the 
prophetic word declares, "And every island fled away, 
and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon 
men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the 
weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of 
the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was ex- 
ceeding great. ' ' Rev. 16 : 20, 21. 

It may not be amiss again to say that the Scriptures 
have foretold the significance of all this. These storms, 
earthquakes, and volcanoes that have already appeared, 
fearfully destructive though they may have been, are but 
the beginnings of what will be seen all over the world 
when God " shall sweep away" the last " refuge of lies,' 9 
and restore again the purity and truth of Eden. 

Not only are these various kinds of storms given as 
signs of the coming day, but we are told that one -of the 
"seven last plagues" is to be the scorching of men with 
"great heat" from the sun. "And the fourth angel poured 
out his vial upon the sun ; and power was given unto him 
to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with 
great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath 
power over these plagues: and they repented not to give 
Him glory." Rev. 16:8, 9. 

Now it is evident that the "seven last plagues" are 
not as yet being poured out, but the evidence is conclusive 
that we are living in the very presence of the time when 
these plagues must soon begin. In the torrid waves that 
sweep over the land, the world is having a little fore- 



340 



HEEALDS OF THE MOKNING 



taste of what that time will be. Particularly during the 
summer season such head-lines to the news of the day 
as the following are of constant occurrence: " Elements 
in a Fury;" "Sun Shows No Mercy;" "Business Par- 
alyzed by Heat;" "Torrid Wave General." Such news- 
paper headings are very common, and familiar to all. 




intend ol Mercea Pempib, Valparaiso, aftei che earthquake of August 16, 190b. 

The reader knows these facts too well to require more 
than the merest mention of them. 

How strikingly clear is the evidence God has given us 
of the approach of that "great day"! Is it not truly mar- 
velous that divine foreknowledge, thousands of years in 
advance, could present these things so graphically? It 
is certain that infinite love has exhausted its infinite 
powers in making clear to us the signs by which we may 



THE VOICE OF THE ELEMENTS 341 

know that the one event of all the ages is "even at the 
doors." All this testimony is accumulating, and pre- 
senting itself in vivid outlines on every hand. When 
we hear the "sea and the waves roaring"; when the 
"fearful sights and great signs" that shall be from 
heaven, together with "famines and pestilences," shall be 
seen in all the land; when we behold "in the earth blood, 
and fire, and pillars of smoke"; when the "destruction 
from the Almighty" is laying "the land* desolate " ; when 
"the Lord maketh the earth empty" and "waste," and 
"turneth it upside down," and it "is utterly broken 
down," "clean dissolved," "moved exceedingly," and when 
it shall "reel to and fro like a drunkard"; when we be- 
hold the mountains, and, lo, they tremble, and all the 
hills move lightly; when we see the "fruitful place" "a 
wilderness, and all the cities thereof" "broken down"; 
when the "treasures of the hail," with which God will 
c c sweep away the refuge of lies, ' ' are devastating the land : 
and when on every hand we see men "scorched w T ith 
great heat"; aye, when the awful raging of all the ele- 
ments is in dreadful commotion all about us, and the 
stoutest of men's hearts are "failing them for fear, and 
for looking after those things which are coming on the 
earth," — then it is we may say with confidence, "Look 
up, and lift up your heads ; for your redemption draweth 
nigh." These multiplied signs all over the land, terrible 
in majesty, power, and destruction though they may be, 
are among the heralds by which God permits the coming 
of His Son to be proclaimed. The soul is stirred to its 
deepest and most sublime emotions as the awe-inspiring 
voice of the elements, in tones of the deepest thunder's 
roar, entreats the whole world? "Prepare to meet thy God." 



THE VOICE OF THE ELEMENTS 343 

Many, in thinking of these things, see only the terror; 
but our heavenly Father does not desire that these com- 
motions of the elements, manifested in terrific hurricanes, 
tornadoes, volcanoes, tidal waves, earthquakes, hail-storms, 
and scorching heat, shall fill the hearts of His children 
with indescribable fear and dismay. These signs are not 
permitted in order to terrify us, but rather to let us know 
that this old earth is "reeling to and fro" amid the shoals 
and breakers near the farther shore of time, where the 
reign of sin shall cease. They are evidences that the 
Son of man is about to return; and the word of our 
Father to us is: "Come, My people, enter thou into thy 
chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself 
as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be 
overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of His place 
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: 
the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more 
cover her slain." Isa. 26:20, 21. 

In this time our Lord assures us: "Thou shalt not be 
afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that 
flieth by day ; nor for the pestilence that walketh in dark- 
ness ; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A 
thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy 
right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with 
thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the 
wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my 
refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall 
no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh 
thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over 
thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee 
up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. 
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder f the young lion 



344 



HEKALDS OF THE MOKNING 



and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. Because 
he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him : 
I will set him on high, because he hath known My name. 
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will 
be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor 




The beautiful little city of Messina, Sicily, as it was before the earthquake of Dec. 28, 1908. 

him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My 
salvation." Ps. 91:5-16. 

All these " exceeding great and precious promises" 
apply at this time. Ponder each one prayerfully. They 
are all yours. God wants to remove all dismay and 
terror from the heart of His people in this time when 
He is preparing to make a complete destruction of all sin. 
For all who will accept Him as their Saviour, His "per- 



THE VOICE OF THE ELEMENTS 



345 



feet love castetli out fear," and will fill the soul with an 
indescribable joy and an unutterable confidence, even 
in the very midst of the most furious of the lashing 
storms, and while being shaken by the vibrations of 
the most destructive eruptions that will ever rend the 




A view of the destruction wrought in Messina by the earthquake of Dec. 28, 1908. How 
many lives were lost in this disaster that visited Sicily and southern Italy will never be 
known, but the lowest estimates place it at more than 100,000 and some of the highest went 
to 300,000. After this great quake there was a constant succession of lighter tremors that 
did more or less damage. On January 23, 1909, there was a heavy earthquake in the province 
of Luristan, western Persia, in which sixty villages were greatly damaged or wholly des- 
troyed, and a number of thousands of lives lost. During January and February of this same 
year, there were numerous shocks felt in Western Asia, and through Europe clear to Portugal, 
in which more or less damage was done. 

plains and hills and mountains of our suffering planet. 
All the foregoing promises are a veritable storehouse 
of strength and power to every one who learns to rest 
upon them. They fill the soul with the calmness of con- 
fidence, because they draw their strength from Him who 



346 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

is the Infinite. And the following is also a treasure of 
promise that should be engraved upon the memory of 
each one so as to be a constant support and solace in 
these tempestuous times: 

"God is our refuge and strength, 
A very present help in trouble. 

Therefore will we not fear, though the earth do change, 
And though the mountains be shaken into the heart of the seas; 
Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, 
Though the mountains tremble with the swelling thereof. 
There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God, 
The holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. 
God is in the midst of her • she shall not be moved : 
God will help her, and that right early. 
The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; 
He uttered His voice, the earth melted. 
Jehovah of hosts is with us; 
The God of Jacob is our refuge. 
Come, behold the works of Jehovah, 
What desolations He hath made in the earth. 
He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; 
He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder ; 
He burneth the chariots in the fire. 
Be still, and know that I am God: 

I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. 
Jehovah of hosts is with us; 
The God of Jacob is our refuge." Psalm 46. 

All these promises show that God has decreed that His 
people shall not be afraid in these stormy times. Their 
mighty God of salvation is with them, and in the confi- 
dence of His presence their hearts are thrilling with the 
emotions of joy because of the complete protection He 
affords to each; they are absolutely relieved from all the 
torments of fear. 



THE VOICE OF THE ELEMENTS 347 

Few people realize that power is an unseen agency. 
You can not see the steam that is driving the engine, 
neither can you see the electricity that is driving the motor 
or making the light. The power that is in wind and 
water is a mighty force that is invisible. So it is with the 
power that is in all the promises of God. The power of 
these promises can not be explained by a finite mortal; 
it can not be shown to the natural eye. But by a living 
faith in the God of all power we may come in contact 
with these promises and be made to know for ourselves 
of their mighty consolations and their infinite lifting force. 

We may see the naked wire suspended from the poles 
along the street or roadway, and in our ignorance say it 
is impossible for it to be charged with any power. We look 
at it closely and say, "It is just such a wire as we have 
seen hundreds of times, and it could not possibly be 
loaded with power, for we can see every inch of it plainly 
and there is nothing there but the visible, naked copper/' 
But suppose we connect with it in such a way as to 
catch its current, and immediately it will turn motors that 
drive powerful machines or that cause" whole systems of 
cars to carry their loads of passengers rapidly from place 
to place. 

And so it is with God's promises. They are loaded with 
power, even though they may have the appearance to the 
casual observer of being only ordinary words. The in- 
dividual who will take our heavenly Father at His word 
and make the connection with His promises, will invari- 
ably find that he is connected with a God-imparted power 
that lifts him above each and every terror that can be 
thrown around him. He realizes that he is resting in the 
arms of the Infinite, and in this confidence he trusts. 




The insect pests in the heading to this chapter are the following, the 



1 Hawk-Moth, grape; 2 Fruit-tree Bark Beetle, plum, cherry, apricot, nectarine, peach, 
apple, pear, quince; 3 and 14 Spring-grain Aphis, wheat and other grains; 4 Box-elder Plant 
Bug, box-elder, peach, plums, apples; 5 Woolly Aphis, one of the worst enemies of the apple 
— it exists in two forms, one that works above ground on the trunk, and the other below 
ground on the roots; 6 and 20 Cucumber-Beetle, cucumber, melon, squash, etc.; 7 Parsnip-borer 
Butterfly, parsnip, parsley, caraway, etc. ; 8 Corn Bill-Bug, Indian corn ; 9 Adult Moth of the 
Fruit-tree Leaf-Roller, pear, apple, etc.; 10, 11 Pear and Apple Mites; 12 Pale, striped Flea- 



CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE 




OT only do the elements overhead testify of the 
coming day, but the very ground itself is called 
upon to bear witness to the nearness of the end 
of time. "And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid 
the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the 
works of Thine hands: they shall perish; but Thou re- 
mainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; 
and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall 
be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall 
not fail." Heb. 1: 10-12. Here the direct and plain lan- 
guage is used that so truly characterizes the Bible. Speak- 
ing of the earth, and of the atmosphere, or heavens, con- 
nected with it, the apostle says, "They all shall wax old 
as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold 
them up, and they shall be changed." Thus the burden 
of decay because of the curse occasioned by sin rests 
heavily on old mother earth, and she "waxes old." 

348 




tree or crop of which they are destructive is given after each: 

Beetle, beet, corn, beans, and potato; 13 Adult Fringed- winged Apple-bud Moth, 15 Moth ol the 
Barred-winged Onion Maggot; 16 Clover Mite; 17 Grub and Adult Moth of the Larger Corn- 
stalk Borer; 18 and 22 Differential Grasshopper, alfalfa especially; 19 Grub and Beetle of the 
Mexican Cotton-boll Weevil; 21 Powder-post Beetle, attacks seasoned wood products; 23 White 
Pine Weevil; 24 Grub and Beetle of Round-headed Apple-tree Borer, apple, pear, quince, etc.; 
25 Flat-headed Apple-tree Borer, in various stages of development; 26 Grub and Beetle of Rose- 
Chafer, grapes as well as roses; 27 Celery Flea-Beetle; 28 Potato Flea-Beetle, potato, tomato, 
egg-plant, etc. 



Isaiah bears witness to the decrepitude of the earth, 
as follows: "Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look 
upon the earth beneath : for the heavens shall vanish away 
like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, 
and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but 
My salvation shall be forever, and My righteousness shall 
not be abolished." Isa. 51:6. Here, again, the state- 
ment is made that the " earth shall wax old like a gar- 
ment." And as the night of sin settles darker and still 
darker upon it, the curse which sin has caused is more 
and more deeply felt. Jeremiah, in speaking of the clo- 
sing days of time, says: "I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful 
place was a wilderness." Jer. 4:26. Then the "waxing 
old" of the earth involves the changing of places once 
"fruitful" into a barren "wilderness." The departing 
of earth's vigor of youth, and the infirmities of age 
which are creeping over her, are thus pointed out as 
among the unmistakable tokens of her approaching dis- 
solution. 

349 




-M 



45 







32 




J37\ 








'"IP* 



49 



For name of insects and pests given in the above plate see note at bottom of next page. 
In many cases the mere mention of the name of the insect indicates the character of its destruc- 
tive work; where this is not thus indicated, the crops, plants, or trees fed upon are mentioned 
immediately following the name of insect. 



THE TESTIMONY OF THE EARTH 351 

There is perhaps no portion of Scripture that sets 
forth the general decay of the earth as an evidence of 
the coming end of time more forcibly than the first 
chapter of Joel's prophecy. The prophet says: 

"Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabit- 
ants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even 
in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of 
it, and let your children tell their children, and their 
children another generation. That which the palmer- 
worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which 
the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten; and 
that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar 
eaten. Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all 
ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is 
cut off from your mouth. For a nation is come up upon 
My land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the 
teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great 
lion. He hath laid My vine waste, and barked My fig- 
tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the 
branches thereof are made white. 

" Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the 
husband of her youth. The meat-offering and the drink- 
offering is cut off from the house of the Lord ; the priests, 
the Lord's ministers, mourn. The field is wasted, the 
land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is 
dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye hus- 



29 Grape-vine Flea Beetle and Grub; 30 Grape-root Worm and Adult Beetle; 31 Grape- 
leaf Hopper; 32 Grape-berry Moth and Larva; 33 Moth of the Black-headed Cranberry- worm ; 
34 Grape-leaf Folder; 35 Work of Tomato-borer in stalk of plant; 36 A bunch of grapes destroyed 
by Black Rot; 37 and 41 Two views of the Stra wberry- Weevil ; 38 Another view of Rose-Chafer 
— when first discovered it was thought that this insect confined its depredations almost wholly 
to the rose, but it has been since discovered that it attacks the apple, pear, cherry, peach, plum, 
and many other fruits and forest trees; 39 Grape-Curculio depositing her egg; 40 Grape-leaf at- 
tacked by Downy Mildew; 42 "Bird's-Eye Rot," grapes; 43 "Ripe Rot," grape; 44 Fungus 
causing Powdery Mildew, grape; 45 Calico Back Cabbage-Bug, in various stages; 46 Bunch 
of grapes attacked by Gray Rot; 47 Adult of Currant and Gooseberry Fruit-Maggot; 48 Adult 
and Grub of Squash-vine Borer; 49 The two forms of the Hop-Plant Louse; 50 Adult Tarnished 
Plant-Bug, almost any tender plant of nursery or garden; 51 "Imported" Cabbage-Butterfly. 



/* 



53 



54. # 



52. 







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f f"/i^l^ 




^ 



U^/ « 



,::;.;. 



OTfSS 



.6? 



7 nM S, 



I : ■•■*■ 



60 /f 



66 









67 



68 



64 



65 







62 



For name of insects and pests given in the above plate see note at bottom of next page. 
In many cases the mere mention of the name of the insect indicates the character of its destruc- 
tive work; where this is not thus indicated, the crops, plants, or trees fed upon are mentioned 
immediately following the name of insect. 



THE TESTIMONY OF THE EAKTH 353 

bandmen; howl, O ye vine-dressers, for the wheat and 
for the barley ; because the harvest of the field is perished. 
The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth; the 
pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, 
even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy 
is withered away from the sons of men. Gird yourselves, 
and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: 
come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: 
for the meat-offering and the drink-offering is withholden 
from the house of your God. 

" Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather 
the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the 
house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord, 
Alas foe the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, 
and as a destruction from the almighty shall it come. 
Is not the meat [food, A. R. V.] cut off before our eyes, 
yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? The 
seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid 
desolate, the barns are broken dow T n; for the corn is 
withered. How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle 
are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the 
flocks of sheep are made desolate. O Lord, to Thee will 
I cry: for the fire hath devoured the* pastures of the 



52 Winged female of the Corn-leaf Aphis; 53 Adult and Grub of Wheat-bulb Worm; 54 
Winged female of the Corn-root Aphis; 55 Stalk of Wheat infested with Green Aphis, or 
"Green Bug;" 56 Army-Worm, full-grown Larva and Adult Moth, so destructive of general field 
crops; 57 Wheat Plant-Louse, in places it has been as destructive of wheat crops as the 
Hessian Fly; 58 Cabbage-Maggot in root of stalk; 59 Western Corn-root Worm; 60 and 60 
Jointworm, showing grub and also the fly that deposits the eggs in stalk of wheat — the young 
grub feeds inside the growing wheat-straw; 61 Enlarged view of Adult of Wheat- Jointworm ; 
62 Clover-leaf Weevil, Adult and Grub; 63 Squash-borer Grubs at work in vine; 64 Southern 
Corn-root Worm, Adult and Larva; 65 Clover-root Borer, clover, alfalfa, and peas; 66 Yellow- 
winged Locust (three views), usually called Grasshoppers, and so destructive to crops at 
various times in many Western States; 67 and 67 Two varieties of Grasshoppers that have 
made depredations on crops in several localities in California; 68 Army Cutworm and Moth; 
69 Caterpillar of Tussock-Moth, partial to the apple, but feeds on other trees ; Numbers 70 to 
79 not used; 80 Several views of the Spring-grain Aphis or "Green Bug," shown also in 55; 
81 Seed-corn Ground-Beetle; 82 Wheat-Midge in some of its forms and stages of development; 
83 Cotton Red Spider, also called the Rust-Mite, leaves of the cotton-plant ; 84 European Wheat 
Saw-Fly, with stalk of wheat at left cut away to show the grub at work; 85 Chinch-Bug, wheat 
and corn. 

23 




103 



For name of insects and pests given in the above plate see note at bottom of next page. 
In many cases the mere mention of the name of the insect indicates the character of its destruc- 
tive work ; where this is not thus indicated, the crops, plants, or trees fed upon are mentioned 
immediately following the name of insect. 



THE TESTIMONY OF THE EAKTH 355 

wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of 
the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee: 
for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath 
devoured the pastures of the wilderness. BLOW YE 
THE TRUMPET IN ZION, AND SOUND AN ALAEM 
IN MY HOLY MOUNTAIN: LET ALL THE IN- 
HABITANTS OF THE LAND TREMBLE : FOR THE 
DAY OF THE LORD COMETH, FOR IT IS NIGH 
AT HAND." Joel 1:2-20; 2:1. 

The fifteenth verse of chapter 1 and the first verse 
of chapter 2 of this prophecy of Joel show that the 
"day of the Lord" is the time to which the prophet's 
vision is directed; and his description of what would 
be seen in the world at that time is most direct and 
forcible. In the other scriptures quoted we have seen 
that the earth is to "wax old like a garment;" this 
chapter in Joel goes into particulars, and tells us quite 
fully what this waxing old means. First, we are told 
of the insects and worms that would be a destruction to 
crops. The "palmer-worm," the "locust," the "canker- 
worm," and the "caterpillar" are mentioned; and then, 
after calling to the drunkard to "weep and howl" be- 
cause the wine is "cut off," it is stated, "For a nation 
is come up upon My land, strong, and without number, 
whose teeth are the^teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek 



86 "White Marked Tussock-Moth, almost all varieties of shade-trees except the pine family; 
87 Pear-Slug, adult and larva, pear, cherry, plum, and allied trees; 88 San Jose Scale, widely 
distributed and destructive of many kinds of orchard trees ; 89 Periodical Cicada, or Locust, 
recorded and noted at periods of 17 years since 1715; 90 "Imported" Elm-leaf Beetle; 91 
Brown Rot of the Cherry, the peach, plum, etc., also attacked by this insect; 92 Enlarged view 
of tho galleries of the Fruit-tree Bark-Beetle; 93 Moth of the Apple-tree Tent-Caterpillar; 94 
Codling-Moth, said to destroy annually one half of the apple crop in the United States; 95 
Bagworm, shade-trees, shrubs, hedges, and particularly the evergreen; 96 the Rosy Apple- 
Louse; 97 Grape Phylloxera, the adult and the developing young; 98 Oyster-shell Bark-Louse, 
the apple especially; 99 Pear-Thrips, almond, apple, apricot, cherry, fig, grape, peach, pear, 
plum, prune, and English walnut; 100 Hemlock-bark Maggot, injurious to standing timber; 
101 already described with 102 Pear-tree Psylla, one of the jumping plant-lice; 103 Male 
and female Brown-Tail Moth, and pear orchard defoliated by them. 




For name of insects and pests given in the above plate see note at bottom of next page. 
In many cases the mere mention of the name of the insect indicates the character of its destruc- 
tive work; where this is not thus indicated, the crops, plants, or trees fed upon are mentioned 
immediately following the name of insect. 



THE TESTIMONY OF THE EARTH 357 

teeth of a great lion. He hath laid My vine waste, and 
barked my fig-tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast 
it away; the branches thereof are made white." Joel 
1:6, 7. 

Thus it is seen that not simply the few destructive in- 
sects and worms mentioned will be working havoc on vege- 
tation, but a " nation is come up upon My land, strong, 
and without number," and as the result the vine is laid 
waste, and the drunkard's wine is cut off; but while his 
supply of wine is "cut off," the drunkard still has his 
appetite for strong drink, and so " weeps" and "howls." 
It is far better to get rid of these perverted desires -now, 
so that in the time so soon to come we will be free in God. 

Note the force of other statements in this remarkable 
scripture: "The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for 
the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil 
languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O 
ye vine-dressers, for the wheat and barley; because the 
harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, and 
the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate-tree, the palm- 
tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, 
are withered: because joy is withered away from the 
sons of men." Joel 1:10-12. 



104 Two-lined Chestnut-Borer, chestnut, spruce, pine, and sometimes the oak; 105 Apple- 
Louse, one of the numerous lice that affects this staple fruit; 106 Buffalo Tree-Hopper, orchards, 
nursery stock, and sometimes shade-trees; 107 Destructive Green Pea-Louse, side and back 
view of female, especially destructive of pea crops, but makes inroads on many other plants ; 
108 Male and female Gypsy Moth and full-grown caterpillar of same, together with hard-wood 
forest defoliated by these insects; 109 (upper) Spring Canker-Worm, (lower) Fall Canker-Worm, 
defoliation of fruit-trees; 110 and 122 Catalpa Sphinx, adult moth and caterpillar, the catalpa 
especially, but feeds on other trees also; 111 San Jose Scale, adult male; 112 White Fly, orange 
and lemon; 113 Cottony Maple Scale, the soft maple especially, but has been found on at 
least forty-seven other species of trees and shrubs; 114 Apple-tree Tent-Caterpillar (another 
view); 115 Plum-Curculio at work, plum and other stone-fruits, and sometimes the apple; 
116 Greenhouse White Fly, tomato, cucumber, and many other plants; 117 Peach-twig Borer, 
showing new shoot withered from attack of the grub; 118 European Grain-Louse, common also 
on the apple; 119 Scurfy Bark-Louse, prefers the pear among orchard trees, the poplar among 
shade-trees, and the currant among small fruits; 120 Spotted Apple-tree Borer, related and 
very similar to the Round-headed Apple-tree Borer; 121 Melon-Louse; 123 Peach-tree Borer, 
male and female, and the young in various stages of development — he is one of the worst 
enemies to the stone-fruits, burrowing under the bark of the tree, usually near the ground. 



358 HEEALDS OF THE MOKNING 

What a striking expression of the conditions that are 
to become more and more pronounced and marked in these 
last days: The field wasted, the land mourning, the har- 
vest of the field perished, the vine dried up, and the 
apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, withered ! But 
this is not all. Eead again: "The seed is rotten under their 
clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken 
down ; for the corn is withered. How do the beasts groan ! 
the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no 
pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. O 
Lord, to Thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the 
pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all 
the trees of the field. The beasts of the field cry also 
unto Thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the 
fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness. Blow 
ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy 
mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: 
for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand/' 
Joel 1 : 17-20 ; 2 : 1. Who can mistake the import of these 
thrilling and heart-searching words? 

How impressive is this chapter of Joel, telling us 
how literally and absolutely the earth "shall wax old as 
doth a garment," and how completely it shall molder to 
decay! The words of Isaiah make plain the cause of all 
this: "The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, 
and shall be removed like a cottage ; and the transgression 
thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not 
rise again. ' ' Isa. 24 : 20. 

' ' The transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it. ' ' 
Then it is the "transgression" — the curse occasioned by 
sin — which results in all this ruin and desolation. The 
individual who chooses to disregard the laws of nature 



THE TESTIMONY OF THE EARTH 359 

must suffer the consequences of his folly. Instead of the 
ruddy glow of health, the pallor of the countenance 
shows that the fires of disease are burning within. And 
so with our old earth. The curse of "the transgres- 
sion thereof" is "heavy upon it," Man's gross iniquities 
have corrupted it, until it, too, is breaking beneath the 
load, and "waxes old," ready for the consuming fires of 
the last days. Our kind heavenly Father would have pre- 
vented all this suffering if sinful man had only submitted 
to the wooing of His divine and amazing love; but this 
being rejected, the only consistent thing left for the Lord 
to do is to allow sin to run its course, till the time is 
reached when every imagination of the thoughts of man's 
heart is only evil continually. When this time comes, 
there will be no longer a ray of hope that any one can 
be made better; but, rather, it will be evident that all 
have become so depraved that the most merciful thing 
is to bring this reign of sin to an end by the judgments 
of the last days. 

Every tiller of the soil is painfully aware of the fact 
that it is becoming more and more difficult to raise a 
crop. Numerous pests and crop-destroyers of one kind 
and another have reached all parts of the land. 

The general Government keeps a strong bureau of 
entomologists, and these are supplemented by local ento- 
mologists in practically every state in the Union. Penn- 
sylvania takes the lead with about thirty trained men who 
spend their time among the farmers giving instruction 
as to how to destroy the pests that feed upon the crops. 
The general Government uses over $300,000 of its annual 
appropriation in maintaining its scientists who study these 
pests and keep them under control. The Congress of 



360 HEKALDS OF THE MOKNING 

1907-8 appropriated $250,000 for the suppression of the 
gypsy moth in the New England states alone; this, in 
addition to $25,000 appropriated by New Hampshire, $30,- 
000 by Maine, and $15,000 by Rhode Island, for the same 
purpose. For the combating of other pests in their re- 
spective territories during those same years Louisiana 
appropriated $25,000, Pennsylvania $40,000, New York 
$70,000, Illinois $25,000, Idaho $12,500, West Virginia 
$12,000, Ohio $10,000, Maryland $8,000, and so on. 

The fight that has to be kept up against these pests is 
quite clearly summarized in a paragraph under the head- 
ing of "The Annual Battle with Insects," by Geo. E. 
Walsh, in the Scientific American: 

"For a quarter of a century science has been laboring 
in the cause of agriculture to reduce the number of garden 
pests and to hold them in check. The annual battles with 
the insect foes are carried on energetically from early 
spring till late autumn; and the farmer or gardener is 
not quite sure of his crops until they have been actually 
harvested. In spite of all the protective agencies with 
which science has surrounded the fields and gardens, dis- 
asters of gigantic proportions will break out occasionally 
through the sudden increase of some obnoxious insect or 
fungous growth. It is the destruction of the potato crop, 
one season, by the Colorado beetle; the total failure of the 
wheat-fields in certain states by the rust or blight another 
year; or the wide-spread injury to the cotton plants by 
the boll-worms. Somewhere within the United States some 
crop is pretty sure to be seriously damaged by the insects 
or the fungous growth nearly every season. . . . By 
the middle of summer, insect foes are swarming all over 
the gardens and on every plant. Plant-lice, or aphides, 



THE TESTIMONY OF THE EARTH 361 

attack all weak plants, and they multiply at the rate of 
from five to twenty millions in a season from one pro- 
genitor/' 

The wasted vineyards in California, in the hills and 
valleys of France and Italy, and elsewhere in the world, 
all show that the drunkard's supply of wine is insecure 
and the days of his famine for strong drink draw on 
apace. 

It is unnecessary, however, to multiply testimony upon 
this point. Every one who has anything to do with the 
raising of fruit or grain, or any kind of plants, knows 
the truthfulness and universal application of what Mr. 
Walsh says. Thousands have been impressed by the in- 
creasing difficulty of maturing a crop; but have they 
realized that it is because the earth is " waxing old" and 
crumbling to decay in consequence of the corrupting trans- 
gressions that are polluting it? And this is but another 
link in the great chain of evidence that shows us so con- 
clusively that "the end of all things is at hand." 

A result of this general decay of the earth as we ap- 
proach the end will be wide-spread famine and pestilence ; 
for has not the Lord said that ' ' great earthquakes shall 
be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fear- 
ful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven" 
(Luke 21:11)? 

"Famines" and "pestilences" have been seen in the 
earth during all the ages, as both history and the Scrip- 
tures plainly show, and so in themselves alone could not 
constitute a sign of the end. But the "famines and pes- 
tilences" of past centuries have been as nothing compared 
with what we may expect in these closing decades of time. 
The words of the prophet again come vividly to mind: 



362 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

"The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; 
because they have transgressed the laws, changed the or- 
dinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath 
the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein 
are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are 
burned, and few men left." Isa. 24: 5, 6. 

So when the earth becomes " defiled under the inhab- 
itants thereof," then it is that it will be said, "Therefore 
hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell 
therein are desolate." And when it can be said that the 
awful "curse" of sin has "devoured" the earth, any for- 
mer pestilence or famine will be compared to the expe- 
riences of that time but as a shadow. The famines in 
India, China, and Japan, the failure of crops in various 
parts of this country, as well as elsewhere in the world, 
are but the dim beginnings of what the condition will be 
when the time so vividly described by the prophets is fully 
reached. 

New forms of disease are constantly breaking out 
among both men and beasts. These diseases become epi- 
demic, and spread over the land as a destroying plague. 
Scientific men are studying these growing infirmities and 
their causes. They have demonstrated that they are all 
a consequence of the violation of nature's laws. The 
"surfeiting," the "drunkenness," the licentious vices, 
against which such faithful warnings have been given in 
the word of God, are at the root of all these physical 
ills of humanity. But pointing out the evil does not cause 
it to cease. Appetite and passion and a general indif- 
ference to nature's inexorable laws, close the minds of 
men, and the warnings are unheeded. 



THE TESTIMONY OF THE EARTH 363 

The knowledge of sanitary and medical science was 
never so great as it is to-day, never so capable of ele- 
vating and purifying the world from its load of corrupt- 
ing ailments; but men go blindly ahead, in the face of 
light and of demonstrated facts of physical law, ever 
plunging deeper and deeper into the degrading and des- 
troying sins against their physical being. It can not 
be said that it is through necessary ignorance that they 
are doing this; for it would seem that God is concen- 
trating every ray of light regarding the laws of life and 
health upon the people of this generation. 

Through the applied knowledge of physiological and 
sanitary law, a wonderful work has been done. The 
average length of life has been materially advanced; but, 
as recently pointed out by one of the world's most thought- 
ful, scholarly, and successful physicians, this lengthening 
of the average of life is not the hopeful thing that statistics 
would indicate. The recent achievements of science enable 
the physician to keep those afflicted with the numerous 
infectious and contagious diseases alive for a much longer 
time than formerly; but it is only that they may produce 
their kind, who will be still further vitiated by the ac- 
cumulating tendency to disease. Thus even the length- 
ening of life is not producing the results that appear on 
the surface. 

The very earth itself is groaning because of "the 
transgression thereof" that is "heavy upon it." The pol- 
lutions of mankind, the transgression of physical law, 
the failure to observe the most thoroughly demonstrated 
principles of sanitary science, create a soil for the growth 
of the germs of decay and pestilence; and Satan, who is 
"come down unto you, having great wrath, because he 



364 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

knoweth that lie hath but a short time," exerts his power 
to increase and intensify the ever-expanding evil. This 
evil one has been in the school of sin for six thousand 
years; he has access to the laboratories of nature, and 
his extended research enables him to know how most 
successfully to combine the elements of transgression to 
produce the most malignant seeds with which to scatter 
the epidemic of decay. Some may be inclined to regard 
this lightly; but let us look at the striking utterances of 
the word of God, listen to the voice of His Spirit im- 
pressing these words upon the soul, view the real and 
startling facts as they stand out around us, and prepare 
soon to meet this plain and unbroken testimony at the 
bar of the Eternal. 

Our Father in heaven is not the author of such suf- 
fering *as appears in the world to-day ; it sometimes seems 
hard to understand why He even permits it. But sin 
has lifted its hideous and cruel head in this planet of 
ours, and all the universe of God must have the object- 
lesson of what Satan, by his reign of hatred and self- 
serving, would accomplish. He has sought to make it 
appear that the Father in heaven is a "hard man," reap- 
ing where He had not sown, and gathering where He had 
not strewed. So sin must be allowed to develop. Its 
consequent miseries, its debasing and polluting corrup- 
tions, its cruel torments, must ripen into the harvest of 
evil. Then all will see for themselves what the terrible 
fruits of sin are; and the declaration of the rebel chief's 
proposition that our God is a "hard man" will be forever 
overthrown by the unanimous testimony of the universe. 
When the last vestige of sin is destroyed, and with it 
all the suffering and sorrow that it has produced, with 



THE TESTIMONY OF THE EARTH 365 

what exultation will "every creature which is in heaven, 
and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are 
in the sea, and all that are in them," join in that swelling 
anthem, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be 
unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb 
forever and ever" (Rev. 5:13)! 

The song of deliverance will soon be sung by the re- 
deemed of God, in the presence of all the universe. What 
a happy day it will be! and how we should rejoice at 
each fresh evidence of the return of the "Prince of 
Peace"! The world is now waiting to hear the good 
news of His coming, and to be entreated to prepare to 
meet Him. God is calling for each one. He is now say- 
ing, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel 
them to come in." The compulsion that He uses is the 
divine force of His matchless love; and may we be ad- 
monished, by all these signs of His coming, to receive 
the heavenly Guest into our hearts, and so not only be 
ready to meet Him but become messengers of righteous- 
ness through whom others may be won to the "Lamb of 
God, which taketh away the sin of the world." 



"Often Ye shall see all tbese things? 




CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX 




O likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, 
know that it [margin, "He"] is near, even at 
the doors." Matt. 24:33. We are bidden by this 
word of the Master to "knotv," when we shall see "all 
these things," that He is near, even at the doors. "When 
these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and 
lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." 
Luke 21: 28. When we "begin" to see the signs that the 
Saviour has pointed to as the tokens of His soon com- 
ing, then are we to "look up," and lift up our heads; 
for our redemption "draweth nigh"; but when we see 
"all" the signs He has mentioned, then are we to "know" 
that He is "even at the doors " 

There have been deceptions of Satan in all the past 
centuries, but never such deceptions as his millenniums 
of experience and long schooling in the ways of sin have 
enabled him to present in these last days. 

There have been here and there some very remark- 
able things scattered along through the ages of the past; 
but nowhere and at no time has there been an age so 
filled with a bewildering mass of achievements, discov= 
eries, and inventions as the one in which we live. 

366 



WHEN YE SHALL SEE ALL THESE THINGS 367 

The gospel has made miraculous advancement as the 
centuries have come and gone; but it was reserved to 
the latter part of the nineteenth century to build the 
great printing-presses, the railways, and the steamships, 
and send out the printed Scriptures into the homes of 
the kindreds and tongues of earth. 

Great errors have spread over sections of the earth 
in bygone days; but nothing has ever more firmly rooted 
itself in the minds of "many people" than the unscrip- 
tural present-day doctrine of a peace millennium. 

There have been plague-spots of crime in different 
ages and localities; but never since the days of Noah 
has it been so apparent as in this time that the greater 
portion of the human race is sinking into the lowest 
depths of injustice, violence, and vice. 

Formality, superstition, and consequent apostasy have 
in many different periods planted the seeds of corrup- 
tion and evil in the church that claimed to represent 
the Son of God; but never has the church, in the pres- 
ence of such opportunities, facing such difficulties and 
dangers, possessing such intellectual possibilities and ma- 
terial facilities for good, and holding such stores of 
light, seemed to stand in such lukewarm, careless, and 
compromising indifference. 

The pleasures and follies of idle amusements have 
always played a part among Satan's devices to lure men 
to sin; but never as to-day have both the world and 
the church been given up so completely to the fun that 
debases, debauches, and destroys. 

There have been wealthy men in every nation and 
in every age; but never has there been such a "heaping" 



368 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

together of treasure, connected with the " cries of the 
laborers/' as is seen and heard at the present hour. 

There have been "wars and rumors of wars"; but 
never before have the nations of all the earth been so 
equipped with their multiplied millions of soldiers, and 
their appallingly terrible instruments of destruction; 
never has it been made so manifest that the "spirits of 
demons" have gone to the "kings of the whole world, to 
gather them together unto the war of the great day 
of God." 

There have been great storms and pestilences here 
and there all down the ages ; but never have the- lashing 
elements filled the inhabitants of earth with such fore- 
bodings as now. There have been occasional and very 
disastrous earthquakes in bygone times, but nothing like 
the rapid successions of temblors that have spread de- 
struction in one city after another during these last few 
years. 

There have been failures of crops and consequent 
famines in various localities from time to time ; but never 
as now has -the evidence made itself seen and felt that 
the earth is "waxing old like a garment," as beneath 
its load of "transgression" it begins to crumble to decay. 
While these things may have been seen to some extent 
in the past, they have not appeared all together, and 
over the ivhole face of the earth. The Master did not 
tell us that when we should see any one of these things 
in some isolated locality, we were to know that His 
coming was near, lout it is when %ve see i( all these things." 
They may all be seen to-day, and they will become more 
and more marked and pronounced as these closing mo- 
ments of time go by. 



WHEN YE SHALL SEE ALL THESE THINGS 369 

And besides these things which are enumerated in the 
pages of this book, may be mentioned the great lines of 
prophecy in the books of Daniel and the Revelation. As 
stated in a former chapter, it is not within the scope of 
this volume to take up a study of these lines of prophecy. 
But suffice it to say that line after line of prophecy is 
presented in those books; each line bringing us down 
through the history of the world, and each and every 
one of them centering in this generation of men as the 
one that is to witness the second coming of Christ. 

Thus do we have a great multitude of witnesses, all 
testifying to the same great truth. Each one joins every 
other one in swelling the harmonious chorus that is caus- 
ing all the world to hear the indescribably good news 
that Jesus the Messiah and the Saviour is almost due 
on earth again. 

When we see these things " begin to come to pass," 
we are to "look up"; but when we see "all these things," 
then are we to "knoiv that He is near, even at the doors." 
How does this matter impress you'? Do you see "all these 
things"? Let each answer to his own conscience and 
to God. Controversy and heated discussion are not in- 
vited. % Professed Christians have already been cursed 
with too much of that. But the reader is earnestly en- 
treated to heed God's word closely, and so prepare for 
that eternity of existence that is given to all who will 
accept it. And how joyful the thought that the night 
of sin is almost ended, and that the heralds of the day 
of endless glory are trumpeting the invitation, "Come; 
for all things are now ready!" 



24 





CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN 

IND at that time shall 
Michael stand up, the 
great Prince which 
standeth for the children of 
thy people : and there shall be 
a time of trouble, such as 
never was since there was a 
nation even to that same time : 
and at that time thy people 
shall be delivered, every one 
that shall be found written in 
the book. And many of them 
that sleep in the dust of the 
earth shall awake, some to 
everlasting life, and some to 
•shame and everlasting con- 
tempt. " Dan. 12:1, 2. The " great Prince which stand- 
eth for the children of thy people" can be none other 
than Christ, whom this text calls Michael. Christ says 
of His present position that He is set down with His 
Father " in His throne." Rev. 3:21. He is seated thus 
with His Father to act as our intercessor and high priest, 
The foregoing text from Daniel tells of the time when 
He " stands up." His work as intercessor and high 
priest is finished, and He "stands up" to be robed with 

370 



THEEE SHALL BE A TIME OF TKOUBLE 371 

the vesture on which is written "King of kings, and 
Lord of lords." The great day of emancipation is at 
hand; for "at that time thy people shall be delivered, 
every one that shall be found written in the book." 

Of those whose names were "written in the book" 
another scripture says: "I saw the dead, small and great, 
stand before God; and the books were opened: and an- 
other book was opened, which is the book of life: and 
the dead were judged out of those things which were 
written in the books, according to their works." Rev. 
20:12. 

Thus do the Scriptures clearly show that to deliver 
' ' every one that shall be found written in the book ■ ' 
is the great work of the Judgment and the resurrection. 
This fact is made still clearer and is more fully em- 
phasized by the words of Daniel already quoted: "And 
many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall 
awake." Dan. 12:2. Thus from every standpoint how 
clearly may it be seen that this "standing up" of Michael 
is associated with the Judgment scenes and the resur- 
rection at that great day when Christ shall come. 

Oh, the sublime joy of the thought! The church in 
all the ages has been singing of the glorious day when 
every sleeping child of God shall be brought from the 
grave to enjoy the bliss of endless life and to possess 
the substantial realities of eternity. The church of past 
ages has had to content itself with the prospect of par- 
ticipating in the blessedness of these resurrection scenes 
at some distant future time; but now the day is at 
hand! The hour is almost here! The Lord has caused 
the guiding tokens to be charted by which we may 
know it. 



372 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

When this view of deliverance for God's people — 
even the resurrection day — was presented to the prophet, 
observe that he saw that there should be "a time of 
trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even 
to that same time." Daniel had a wonderful view in 
minute outline of the rise and fall of nations, beginning 
with his own day and reaching down to the second 
coming of Christ. All the bloody scenes of all the bloody 
wars that would arise during all the conflicts, the struggles, 
and oppressions of the ages were made to be familiar 
to Daniel's prophetic eye. Yes, even the French Revo- 
lution, with its shocking brutalities, its horrors, and its 
" Reign of Terror," was viewed by the prophet. And 
then the vision of the "time of the end" is given him; 
he sees the difficulties, the evils, and the perplexities; 
he beholds that which causes Michael to " stand up" as 
"King of kings and Lord of lords"; and then he pens 
the prophetic words, "There shall be a time of trouble, 
such as never was since there was a nation even to that 
same time." 

To those who have read of the terrors in France 
during her revolution a hundred years ago, and who may 
be familiar with the history of other national calamities, 
and the many times of trouble that our world has seen, 
it may be a startling revelation that none of those scenes 
in the past furnish a parallel to which this "time of 
trouble" in the "time of the end" may be likened; yet 
such is the declaration of the Scriptures. In view of 
the condition of our world to-day, what else is there to 
expect? As we enter the time when, as the word of God 
foretells, ' ' every imagination of the thoughts ' ' of men 's 
hearts will be "only evil continually," the one result 



THERE SHALL BE A TIME OF TROUBLE 373 

that can follow will be an unprecedented "time of 
trouble." It will be as much worse than the "time of 
trouble" resulting from the abandoned wickedness in 
Noah's time, as the population of evil-doers is greater 
now, and as Satan's ability to deceive has by long prac- 
tise become more acute and cunning. 

Other scriptures bear testimony that the closing days 
of earth's history are a "time of trouble." Luke records 
the Master's words as follows: "There shall be signs in 
the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon 
the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea 
and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for 
fear, and for looking after those things which are com- 
ing on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be 
shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming 
in a cloud with power and great glory." Luke 21: 25-27. 

Thus has the Lord foretold the "distress of nations, 
with perplexity," that will exist on the earth at the time 
of His coming. Not only will the nations be in "dis- 
tress" and "perplexity," but there will be the "sea and 
the waves roaring." Men will see these "things which 
are coming on the earth," and their hearts will fail 
them for fear. Such is the word of God, and such are 
the literal facts. 

The reader is familiar with Paul's statement in 2 Tim. 
3:1-5, which tells of the "perilous times" that shall 
come "in the last days." He knows of the great list 
of sins there enumerated that shall exist not only in 
the world but among those who "have a form of godli- 
ness," which sins are the producers of the last-day perils. 
Selfishness, avarice, and the cruelty of sin have ever 
been a source of danger in the world; but this danger 



374 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

reaches its climax in the "time of trouble," and occasions 
"fears," "perplexities," and "perils" in the "last days." 

Other scriptures sounding the warning of dangers that 
will exist in the closing years of earth's reign of sin 
are doubtless before -the mind; but perhaps in none of 
them is the situation more vividly portrayed than in the 
words of Zephaniah: 

"And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will 
search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that 
are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The 
Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil. There- 
fore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses 
a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not in- 
habit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink 
the wine thereof. The great day of the Lord is near, 
it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the 
day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bit- 
terly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble 
and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day 
of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick 
darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the 
fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will 
bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind 
men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and 
their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh 
as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall 
be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath; 
but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His 
jealousy: for He shall make even a speedy riddance of 
all them that dwell in the land." Zeph. 1:12-18. 

The word * ' Jerusalem ' ' sometimes applies to the pro- 
fessed church of Christ as well as to the literal city of 



THERE SHALL BE A TIME OF TROUBLE 375 

the Jews, and in the foregoing quotation it very clearly 
denotes the church. Not only do these words of Zeph- 
aniah add their harmonious testimony to what other 
scriptures say concerning our times, but a most solemn 
warning is given to professed Christians "that are settled 
on their lees," and who "say in their heart, The Lord 
w r ill not do good, neither will He do evil." This is the 
time of the church's greatest responsibility; for "the 
great day of. the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth 
greatly. ' ' Zephaniah says, ' ' The mighty man shall cry 
there bitterly;" he says it is "a day of trouble and 
distress"; it is "a day of wasteness and desolation"; 
it is "a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds 
and thick darkness." The prophet also adds that it 
is "a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced 
cities, and against the high towers," showing, of course, 
the spirit of war that shall be in the land; and because 
of these impending perils, the church should be intensely 
active in her Master's work. 

What solemn heed should be given to the warnings 
sent to this wicked age: "I will bring distress upon men, 
that they shall walk like blind men, because they have 
sinned against the Lord." And "neither their silver nor 
their gold," which, as previously shown, they have 
heaped "together for the last days," "shall be able to 
deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath." Surely 
this scripture adds a most decided testimony to the fact 
that there shall be a great "time of trouble" immedi- 
ately before the coming of the Just One. 

"I will bring distress upon men," says Jehovah, "that 
they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned 
against the Lord " The mighty arm of omnipotent power 



376 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

will bring down this ' ' distress. ' ? Men have sinned, and 
just as harvest follows sowing, so does distress from 
the Lord follow sinning. The merciful Father sends 
His entreaties of love, and if men will not yield, then 
He entreats them through distress. But in their dis- 
tress if they will not turn to Him, then is He under 
the painful necessity of giving them up to the destruc- 
tion that they insist upon having. 

We have already seen that the last days will be full 
of Satanic deceptions. What perils and trouble these 
deceptions will lead men into, only divine foresight is able 
to reveal. We have been forewarned that at the "com- 
ing of the Son of man," even as in "the days of Noah," 
"every imagination of the thoughts" of men's hearts will 
be "only evil continually"; that "all flesh" will "cor- 
rupt his way upon the earth," and the earth will be 
"filled with violence"; that judgment will be "turned 
away backward," and the corrupting vices of Sodom will 
pollute the world; that a "form of godliness" will take 
the place of the power of the gospel in the church, and 
in consequence many professors of Christianity will be 
"lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." We have 
read the scriptures that tell of those who will heap 
"treasure together for the last days," and also have 
heard how the cry of the laborers will be raised in con- 
sequence of this oppression. The present conflict between 
capital and labor is indeed most vividly set forth in the 
inspired word. Our minds have been impressed by the 
predictions of the awful work that will be done by the 
"angry" nations, as they are gathered by the evil spirits 
to "the battle of that great day." The Lord has told 
us that the elements in the physical world will break 



THERE SHALL BE A TIME OF TROUBLE 377 

forth in terrific storms and earthquakes, until the earth 
shall be "utterly broken down/' "clean dissolved," 
"moved exceedingly" — yea, that it "shall reel to and fro 
like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage," 
on account of the transgression "that shall be heavy upon 
it." Then, too, the earth is "waxing old like a gar- 
ment"; in its decaying condition crops are uncertain, 
and famine and pestilence will fill the world. 

But in the face of all these plain statements of the 
Lord, and while standing in the time when the facts that 
fulfil His word are a present, living reality, men will 
say: "Do not be disturbed. There is no 'time of trouble' 
ahead. Rest easy; for the nations will 'learn war no 
more,' and it is 'peace and safety' ahead of us." 

Many have uttered these false assurances of peace 
ignorantly. It has been taught them, and they have 
taken it for granted that it is so; but the Lord's word 
is plain, and He is seeking by its mighty power to dispel 
the delusion. There are many who are beginning to see 
the danger ahead, and are raising the signal of alarm. 
They do not all understand the meaning of the perils that 
are on either side of us, and that loom up still darker 
in front of us; yet, nevertheless, they see them. 

Archbishop Ireland says: "The bonds of society are 
relaxed; traditional principles are losing their sacredness, 
and perils hitherto unknown are menacing the life of 
the social organism." — "The Church and Modern Society/' 
p. 4. 

It is with no indistinctness that the celebrated arch- 
bishop says that "perils hitherto unknown are menacing 
the life of the social organism." 



378 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

Leo XIII spoke on the subject as follows: 

"It is not surprising that the spirit of revolutionary 
change which has so long been dominant in the nations 
of the world, should have passed beyond politics, and 
made its influence felt in the cognate field of practical 
economy. The elements of a conflict are unmistakable: 
the growth of industry, and the surprising discoveries of 
science; the changed relations of masters and workmen; 
the enormous fortunes of individuals, and the poverty 
of the masses; the increased self-reliance and the closer 
natural combination of the working population; and, 
finally, a general moral deterioration. The momentous 
seriousness of the present state of things just now fills 
every mind with painful apprehension; wise men discuss 
it; practical men propose schemes; popular meetings, leg- 
islatures, and sovereign princes are all occupied with 
it; and there is nothing which has a deeper hold on 
public attention." — Encyclical Letter on the Condition of 
Labor. 

Leo very clearly saw the difficulties that are arising. 
He saw that the "momentous seriousness of the present 
state of things just now fills every mind with painful 
apprehension," and "that there is nothing which has a 
deeper hold on the public attention." He saw the ele- 
ments coming together that will combine to make the 
great and final "time of trouble." 

Mr. Benjamin Kidd says: "To the thoughtful mind 
the outlook at the close of the nineteenth century is pro- 
foundly interesting. History can furnish no parallel to it. 
The problems which loom across the threshold of the new 
century surpass in magnitude any that civilization has 
hitherto had to encounter." — "Social Evolution/' p. 1. 



THERE SHALL BE A TIME OF TROUBLE 379 

E. Benjamin Andrews, one of America's prominent 
and well-known educators, on returning from a trip to 
Europe, said: 

"No well-informed person in Europe seems to believe 
that peace is destined to endure there very long. On all 
hands people are preparing for war. Armies and navies 
are strengthened; fortifications are multiplied; immense 
war treasures of gold piled up; all possible hypothetical 
plans of campaign, offensive and defensive, studied and 
discussed; firearms, great and small, ceaselessly experi- 
mented upon and improved; civil measures subordinated 
to military, and statesmen to great army men and navy 
men. Within a few months I have read several articles 
on the defense of London in case of an attack from the 
continent. 

"Moreover, where all sorts of maneuvers for alliances 
are going on, there is wide-spread distrust of treaties and 
the national friendships that exist. Almost never before, 
I think, did so many nations of Europe feel themselves 
hopelessly isolated. Great Britain is in distress on this 
account; so is Germany. Family ties between crown- 
wearing persons amount to nothing. When Nicholas, of 
Muscovy, visited London, he sojourned some days in Ger- 
many both going and coming. On each occasion William 
besought his dear cousin, almost with tears, for some word 
of assurance that the Russians meant peace. 'Cousin/ 
was the reply, 'if you Germans wish security, make terms 
with France. ' It was a stone instead of bread ; insult, not 
comfort ; yet it is said William dare not show resentment, 
remembering the size of the Muscovite army and its near- 
ness to his eastern borders." 



380 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

Seiior Oispi, Italy's greatest statesman, said: " Europe 
resembles Spain from a certain point of view. Anarchy 
is dominant everywhere. To speak frankly, there is no 
Europe. The European concert is only a sinister joke. 
Nothing can be expected from the concert of the powers. 
We are marching toward the unknown. Who knows what 
to-morrow has in store for us?" 

Doctor Charles William Eliot, who was the learned 
and efficient president of Harvard University from 1869 
to 1908, in a speech in New York, toward the close of 
1908, said: 

"The defenses of society against criminals have broken 
down. A state mounted police, with a thorough military 
organization, is needed in every part of our country — 
North, South, East, and West. . . . The impunity with 
which crimes of violence are now committed is a disgrace 
to the country and demonstrates the urgent need of much 
more effective protective forces. A far worse form of 
lawlessness is the violation of law by rich corporations. 
Any man or any corporation who conducts business on 
the edge of the law, so to speak, is a morally lawless 
person ! ' ' 

Speaking of the machinery of the law which has been 
provided to protect society, he says: 

"It neglects to provide the protective forces neces- 
sary to secure its peace. It fails to educate the children 
in reverence and obedience and inspire them with the love 
of liberty under the law. It declines association with 
burglars and forgers, but not with dishonest promoters, 
corrupt officials, and with lawyers who teach their clients 
how to evade the law." 

Doctor Eliot has always been rightly classed as one of 



THERE SHALL BE A TIME OF TROUBLE 381 

the great optimists of the country, and therefore his words 
should have special weight. 

It is unnecessary to comment on the foregoing quo- 
tations. They are but selections from utterances that are 
heard continually from the platform and the press, and 
they show that many men are awake to the fact that a 
great storm is gathering.. They see the " distress of na- 
tions/' and are perplexed; their hearts are " failing them 
for fear, and for looking after those things which are 
coming on the earth;" they realize that " perilous times" 
have come, and see the rapidly-approaching "time of 
trouble." And yet, if they would only turn to the light 
of God's word, and allow it to illuminate, and cheer 
their hearts, they would know what it all means, and 
would not be " perplexed," nor "fear." We have already 
seen that the angels of God are commissioned to 
"hold" the "winds" of strife in check till all have a chance 
to flee to the safe shelter .so divinely provided. When 
that restraining influence is withdrawn, the judgments 
of God will fall upon the persistently impenitent. 

In these "perilous times," and while "men's hearts are 
failing them for fear" because they see the unmistakable 
approach of that "time of trouble, such as never was 
since there was a nation," do not give the trumpet the 
uncertain sound. Do not say, "Peace, peace, when there 
is no peace;" but hold aloft the light of the blessed Bible, 
so that men may know its great prophecies and see that 
"city of refuge," whose bulwarks are laid by the all- 
powerful hand of Omnipotence; whose foundations are 
sure to all eternity; and whose inhabitants shall never 
know sickness, nor sorrow, nor trouble, nor distress. 




CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT 




|E have been considering the Bible description of 
the conditions that will prevail all over the earth at 
the close of time. We have seen the inspired state- 
ments concerning the "time of trouble" and the last-day 
" perils"; we have read from the Book of God of the 
" waxing old" of the earth, and that "the sea and the 
waves" will be roaring; we have learned of the "angry" 
nations, and of those who -oppress the laborer, and who 
have "heaped treasure together for the last days"; we 
have found also that God has foretold the vice, the crime, 
the injustice, and the violence that will fill the land. Look- 
ing at this picture only, we see nothing but darkness, dis- 
tress, and wo; but there is a great light shining through 
it all, and far above and beyond it. 

Will our heavenly Father allow Satan to curse the 
world with deceptions, and corrupting and distressing sins, 
and He do nothing to show the blessings and the joys of 
truth and goodness? Will He allow the evil to lift its 
hideous though bedecked and gilded head to the most con- 

382 



THE EARTH WAS LIGHTENED BY HIS GLORY 383 

summate heights of folly, that it may the more surely 
plunge men to the lowest depths of wickedness and wo, and 
do nothing to expose the danger, and save the beguiled and 
deluded objects of His love? The first advent of Christ 
was heralded by the anthems of angels; the miraculous 
power and love of the Saviour were manifested in preach- 
ing to the poor, healing the sick, and raising the dead; 
at Pentecost there was a mighty outpouring of the Spirit 
of God; and will this dispensation, so wondrously begun 
in the demonstration of divine power, be allowed to close 
in obscurity and weakness? Will its glorious light be 
made to flicker dimly, or be buried beneath the rubbish 
of this sinful time? — No, never, never! 

The eighteenth chapter of Revelation presents with- 
out doubt the strongest, the most scathing, and the most 
heart-searching condemnation of the sins of the last gen- 
eration, that can be found in the inspired Book. Read 
the entire chapter, and allow it to quicken your sense of 
the divine displeasure with wrong; but do not fail to 
observe closely the opening sentences: 

"And after these things I saw another angel come 
down from heaven, having great power; and the earth 
was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a 
strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, 
and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of 
every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful 
bird." V r erses 1, 2. 

How sublime is the description of this mighty angel 
who lifts such a strong voice against the sins of Babylon! 
This babel of evil that seeks by its corruptions completely 
to overthrow the last generation of men, must be exposed. 
Light must be thrown in upon these hidden, iniquitous 



384 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

works of darkness that make the last days "perilous," 
and cause an unprecedented "time of trouble"; and so 
the heavenly messenger is sent to lighten the earth with 
his glory. Here is a promise that fires every emotion of 
the soul with the entrancing thought that in the very 
stronghold of iniquity, and amid its most desperate work- 
ing, the Master exerts His mighty power, and the earth 
is lightened with His glory. 

The Lord left the promise with His church that "these 
signs shall follow them that believe; in My name shall 
they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 
they shall take up serpents ; and if they drink any deadly 
thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the 
sick, and they shall recover. ' ' Mark 16 : 17, 18. 

The Master inspired one of His apostles to repeat this 
promise by saying, ' ' God hath set some in the church, first 
apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that 
miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diver- 
sities of tongues." 1 Cor. 12:28. 

It is true that soon after He uttered the foregoing 
assurances concerning the gifts He had placed in His 
church, a great apostasy began; it is true that the 
"mystery of iniquity" found its way into the hearts of 
those who professed the name of Christ, and what He 
once delighted to call His church became a wicked and 
cruel misrepresentation of His righteousness, His mercy, 
and His love. But after men had gone to the very depths 
of this apostasy ; when they had bound themselves about 
with all the gloom and superstitions of the Dark Ages, 
then it was that they began to awaken to a realization 
of the craving in the soul for something that could not 
be found in their pilgrimages, their penances, and their 



THE EAKTH WAS LIGHTENED BY HIS GLORY 



385 



exacting forms of creed-bound service. Our God was fol- 
lowing them all the time. He yearned over them with love. 
He kept giving them all the light that their eyes, so used 
to darkness, could endure. And when the awakening 
time came, His word was again sought, and read as 
never before. The printing-press multiplies copies of it; 
missionaries put ^ it in other d languages, and carry it 




"And I saw another angel come down from heaven, having 
was lightened with his glory." 



great power; and the earth 



'to all the world; and the new day of gospel light unfolds 
as fast as men will turn to God, and become the bearers of 
His gems of truth. 

The outgrowth of this light from God is the breaking 
of the shackles that have for so long enslaved men's 
minds. The world is encouraged to think, and the re- 
sultant monuments of thought rise to mountain heights 
in the marvelous material productions of this surpassing 
age. The Lord is leading; and if mankind will only 



386 HEKALDS OF THE MORNING 

follow, every one may be saved from the thraldom of sin, 
and be carried into the unfolding glories of the Eternal. 

As men are led to study and believe the Bible, some 
will be developed through whom God can manifest His 
: ' gifts ' ' which He ' ' has set ' ' " in the church. ' ' To some will 
be given the "word of wisdom"; to others, the "word of 
knowledge"; to others, the gift of "faith"; to others, the 
' ' gift of healings " ; to others, the ' ' working of miracles ' ' ; 
to others the gift of "prophecy"; to others, the "dis- 
cerning of spirits"; to others, the gift of "tongues"; and 
to others, the "interpretation of tongues." 1 Cor. 12: 8-10. 

That was a wonderful manifestation of the power of 
the Spirit of God, when at Pentecost the "gifts" worked 
powerfully in the church; but under the outpouring of 
the Spirit in these last days, those gifts that formality 
and unbelief have driven out, will return to do a mightier 
work. Satan sees the unfolding of the Lord's great 
plan. He becomes enraged that he can not hold men 
in the superstitious errors of darkness. He plans in his 
most masterly way to deceive mankind. He can lead 
many into such gross crimes and vices that nothing short 
of the dawning Judgment-day will cause them to look up 
to God; others can be kept in a sort of genteel infidelity 
that looks with pity upon him who believes the word of 
the Lord; but there are many others who, while they 
hold to the Bible, yet do so in a careless, nominal way, 
and without appropriating its vitalizing truth ; and special 
delusions must be prepared for these. Satan knows that 
God is educating His true followers, who are now scat- 
tered in every clime, and worshiping under so many 
denominational names, to do a mighty work. "It shall 
come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out 
of My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your 



THE EARTH WAS LIGHTENED BY HIS GLORY 387 

daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see 
visions, and your old men shall dream dreams : and on 
My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in 
those days of My Spirit ; and they shall prophesy : and I 
will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth 
beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: the sun 
shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, 
before that great and notable day of the Lord come : and 
it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the 
name of the Lord shall be saved." Acts 2:17-21. 

The evil one knows these prophecies concerning this 
mighty outpouring of God's Spirit "in the last days." 
He knows that God has said that a mighty angel has been 
commissioned to enlighten the earth with His glory ; and 
if you have never before seen the cunning of Satan, wit- 
ness the counterfeit "healers" and "faith cures" that 
he is sending out to flood the world with their pernicious 
and misleading notions. And those persons who hold to 
the Bible in a careless, indifferent way; the ones who 
do not dig for themselves into its great mines of truth 
so that they may be fortified by a personal knowledge of 
just what God's own word says, are the ones who will be 
most easily beguiled by the sophistries of Satan. 

If no other eyidence can show you that God is pre- 
paring to do a marvelous work in these last days, under 
the outpouring of mighty pentecostal manifestations of 
His Spirit, just witness the counterfeits that are being sent 
out to discredit this on-coming work of the Lord. Men and 
women are rising up everywhere to talk glibly about the 
gifts of miracles and healing that God has placed in the 
church. A superficial knowledge leads one to believe that 
all their teaching is warranted by Scripture ; but a deeper 



388 HEBALDS OF THE MOBNING 

knowledge, a daily study of the word, a devoted faith in 
its teaching, and a full surrender of the will to God — 
through which comes the possession of His "gift" of the 
" discerning of spirits" — are the only things that en- 
able us to know whether these persons are pretenders, or 
whether they are sent out by the authority of Heaven 
and with power from on high. 

Of this one thing be sure : when the Master places His 
" gifts of healing" upon a man, that man will be able to 
say, as did Peter to the lame man at the gate of the temple, 
"In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and 
walk;" and those words will contain the power of God, 
and the malady must go. What God does is perfect, and 
there will be no doubt about the reality of the healing. The 
skill of a physician will not be needed to tell the patient 
that he is well; for the ruddy glow of health will testify 
that a soul has been breathed upon by omnipotent power. 
Men of faith may pray for the afflicted, and God's word 
says that "the prayer of faith shall save the sick" (James 
5: 15) ; but he who has the "gifts of healings" is commis- 
sioned of Heaven to command disease, and divine power 
obliges it at once to depart. 

But let it be remembered that there will appear what 
seem from every human standpoint to be miraculous heal- 
ings, which are nevertheless not done by the power of God. 
We have already learned that, to enforce his great decep- 
tions in the last days, Satan will work "with all power 
and signs and lying wonders." You may ask, "Why is he 
permitted thus to work?" — It is that the malignant virus 
of sin may be made manifest, and its deceitful workings 
fully known; but God shows His care for His creatures 
by unmasking the monster of evil, so that all may know its 



THE EARTH WAS LIGHTENED BY HIS GLORY 389 

real character. He also fills His word with promises that 
enable every one to shun the delusive charms of sin, and 
stand at all times in the blazing light and power of truth. 
Yes, the reader may even be one of those who join with 
the mighty angel in these closing hours of time in filling 
the earth with the light and the glory of the Lord. 

It must be evident to any one who has taken the time 
to consider the Bible evidence, that the consummating con- 
flict of all the ages is even right now upon the world. The 
forces of darkness, of crime, of sensuality, of sin, of de- 
struction, are arrayed on the one hand, but rising as a sun 
of hope on the other is the increasing light of gospel truth 
and power. This gospel light is destined to spread till all 
the world is filled with its splendid glory. There never 
were such issues in the world before to call out the unre- 
served heroism of service. Never before have men had the 
inspiration that comes from standing on the threshold of 
the resurrection, and of breathing, after only a little fur- 
ther period of waiting, the Eden-perfumed zephyrs of the 
eternal world. Never before have men had every exalted 
and exulting emotion stirred by the definite knowledge that 
all the angels of heaven are being marshaled to escort the 
King of eternity, the world's Redeemer, on His triumphal 
advent journey to this needy and sinking world. Knowing 
that He would have men and women who would be 
possessed with such soul-absorbing themes as these, our 
heavenly Father could safely foretell the enlightening of 
the whole earth with His divine glory. 

Tell it everywhere; tell it over and over again, "Glo- 
rious things are spoken of thee, O city of God!" Let all 
the world know that God sends His mighty angel from 
heaven, and the earth will be lightened with His glory. 



390 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



Receive the word of God. Stand in the fulness of the 
power of faith; and as our Father pours out His Spirit 
to accomplish His mighty work, He will use you as His 
instrument of righteousness, service, and glory. 




"The desert shall rejoice 
and blossom as the rose." 



OUR J^EFUGE and fbRTRESS 




CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE 

HE "time of trouble, such as never was since there 
was a nation," is rapidly drawing on. But in the 
presence of these accumulating perils we have a 
refuge. The arm of our omnipotent Father is stretched 
out to protect and rescue us. 

But the reader may be among those who are loaded 
with corrupting vice and polluting sins, — among those 
who are unjust, oppressive and cruel. If so, there is en- 
couragement in the word even for all such; for it says, 
"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, 
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of 
whom I am chief." 1 Tim. 1: 15. He saves to the utter- 
most all "that come unto God by Him." Heb. 7:25. Is 
it possible to get beyond "the uttermost"? Even the 
"chief" of sinners is called. Indeed, the Lord could call 
none others in this world but sinners ; i ' for all have sinned, 
and come short of the glory of God. ' ' Rom. 3 : 23. 

"Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your 
doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to 
do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the 
fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us 

391 



392 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

reason together, saitli the Lord: though your sins be as 
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red 
like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isa. 1: 16-18. 

" Scarlet" and "crimson" are indelible colors; yet the 
Lord promises that though our sins are like "scarlet" He 
will make them as "snow," and "though they be red like 
crimson, they shall be as wool." He saves to "the utter- 
most" even the "chief of sinners." What more could be 
asked? What more could be given? 

We may be at a loss to know how He can cleanse such 
vile sinners, but there is comfort in the thought that God 
can do many things that we can not understand. We do 
not know hotv an acorn grows into naught else than the 
oak, while a grain of wheat planted by its side will just as 
invariably produce nothing but its own kind. Can you tell 
how this is? The answer is readily made that "it is 
nature." But "nature" did not create itself, neither does 
it generate the power that is so manifest in its workings. 
It is our heavenly Father who creates and sustains all this 
perfect and beautiful manifestation of life that we (and 
so often without a thought of what we are saying) call 
"nature." Nature is matter obeying the voice of God. 
It is the Father in heaven, all-powerful, ever present, and 
ever working, who produces all this wonderful life and 
activity in the natural world. 

Know, then, O sinner, that Jesus is infinite in salva- 
tion's power! He who commands all the mighty and 
mysterious forces of nature, says that though your sins be 
of the deepest dye, they shall be as white as the snow. 
Then "seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye 
upon Him w r hile He is near: let the wicked forsake his 
way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him 



CUE REFUGE AND FORTRESS 393 

return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; 
and to our God ? for He will abundantly pardon. For My 
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways 
My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher 
than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, 
and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain 
cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth 
not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring 
forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and 
bread to the eater: so shall My word be that goeth forth 
out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but 
it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall pros- 
per in the thing whereto I sent it. ' ' Isa. 55 : 6-11. Read 
these promises, meditate upon them, believe them, and the 
Spirit of God will comfort and strengthen the heart 
through them. 

It may be that, though a child of God, your heart is 
"failing" "for fear, and for looking after those things 
which are coming on the earth." Perhaps the increasing 
and awfully destructive storms and earthquakes, and the 
general commotion in nature, inspire terror. But it should 
not be so. God promises: "Thou shalt not be afraid for 
the terror by night ; nor for the arrow that flieth by day ; 
nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for 
the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall 
fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but 
it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt 
thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because 
thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the 
Most High, thy habitation ; there shall no evil befall thee, 
neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." Ps. 
91:5-10. 



394 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



"Thou shalt not be afraid. " How soul-satisfying is 
this word! The Lord does not merely admonish us not to 
be afraid; He does not simply say that we ought not to 
fear; but He asserts that we shall not "be afraid." "For 
He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee 
in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, 
lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." Ps. 91:11, 12. 
If any are fearful because of the famines that will be- 
come more and more prevalent as the earth "waxes old," 
the word says: "He that walketh righteously, and speak- 
eth uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, 
that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stop- 
peth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes 
from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high: his place of 
defense shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be 
given him; his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall 
see the King in His beauty: they shall behold the land 
that is very far off." Isa. 33: 15-17. "They shall not be 
ashamed in the evil time : and in the days of famine they 

shall be satisfied." * Ps. 37:19. 

Again the Lord says : "When thou 
passest through the waters, I will be 
with thee; and through the rivers, 
they shall not overflow thee: when 
thou walkest through the fire, thou 
shalt not be burned ; neither shall the 




He brought His people out of that land, "with a mighty hand, 
with wonders." 



and with signs and 



OUE KEFUGE AND FOKTKESS 395 

flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the 
Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour." Isa. 43:2, 3. "No 
weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and 
every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou 
shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the 
Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord." 
Isa. 54:17. 

There are no conditions or difficulties, even in the 
worst possibilities of the present, or in the portentous 
days that are yet to come, that God does not penetrate 
with promises that bring hope and comfort and strength. 

Satan has summoned all his malignant power in his 
last and supreme effort to oppress and destroy the people 
of God; but their danger appeals to the tender mercy 
and love of their Father; and as expressed in the sub- 
limest of inspired prophecy, there will be heard the shout 
of the Eternal: " Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm 
of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the gener- 
ations of old. Art Thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and 
wounded the dragon? Art Thou not it which hath dried 
the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the 
depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?" 
Isa. 51:9, 10. 

The Lord did wonderful things in the land of Egypt; 
He brought His people out of the bondage, the gross 
idolatry and sin of that dark land, "with a mighty hand, 
and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, 
and with signs, and with wonders;" but with a mightier 
and more glorious display of His love and power will He 
take them out of the accumulating corruptions, the deba- 
sing sin and evils of this time. God's exercise of power 
in that time was abundant in saving His people from 



396 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

Pharaoh's cruel tyranny; but in this time, when Satan 
is concentrating all his forces of evil, equipped with all 
the experience and training of the long reign of sin and 
crime, the occasion demands a corresponding exercise of 
divine majesty and might. "The Lord also shall roar out 
of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the 
heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be 
the hope of His people, and the strength of the children 
of Israel." Joel 3:16. 

How soul-inspiring is the thought that the "last days' ' 
are reached, and that in our time the Lord will fulfil 
His word that says: "Behold, the days come, saith the 
Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that 
brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt ; 
but, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel 
from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither 
He had driven them: and I will bring them again into 
their land that I gave unto their fathers." Jer. 16: 14, 15. 
In that time the Lord took His Israel from Egypt to an 
earthly Canaan; but in this time He gathers them from 
every part of the world to lead them into His heavenly 
and eternal Canaan. How glorious, then, must this final 
deliverance be, when it so outshines the mighty works of 
God in Egypt, and is made to stand forth as the one mon- 
umental illustration for all eternity of the majestic work- 
ing of the mighty power of God ! ' ' Therefore the redeemed 
of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto 
Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they 
shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning 
shall flee away. ' ' Isa. 51 : 11. 

It is only the poetry of inspiration and the inspiration 
of poetry that can thus express the "glorious things" 



OTTK REFUGE AND FORTRESS 



397 



that "are spoken of thee, O.city of God." Then happy 
will it be for us if we stand upon the foundation of God's 
sure word, so that we may recognize the heralds of that 
morning that is so soon to break and disclose to every 
watchful eye and waiting heart the satisfying realities of 
the eternal day. And as it becomes more and more evident 
that our Saviour is soon coming, let us pray with the be- 
loved John, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." 





I: 




Vti *riJ|\f »r 





CHAPTER THIRTY 

HIS generation is living in the presence of a won- 
derful array of fulfilling prophecy. The facts 
are before us and the evidence is so clear as to 
leave no occasion for the faintest shadow of a doubt. 

This generation should be thrilled by the knowledge 
that all these fulfilling prophecies are to culminate in 
the one supreme event of the second coming of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

This generation should grasp its proffered opportunity 
of proclaiming the glorious gospel of the kingdom to the 
ends of the earth. 

The events that focus upon this generation are im- 
measurably sublime. The prophecies that show us that 
the second coming of Christ is at hand, point also to the 
great Judgment-day and the resurrection from the dead. 
Every son and daughter of Adam who shall be found 
worthy to have a part in the resurrection of the righteous 

398 



IN THIS GENERATION 399 

will soon be called from the death-locked chambers of the 
tomb. The evergreen crown, woven by the divine Father 
from the laurels of faithfulness, integrity, purity, and 
truth, will soon be placed by the Redeemer's own hand 
on the brow of each one that He rescues by His grace. 

Our fathers, through all the generations of the cen- 
turies that have come and gone, have loved to talk of 
the coming time when the dead should be raised at the 
second advent of the Lord. In order for them to behold 
that day of consummating triumphs and joy, they had to 
lift to their eyes the telescope of prophecy, and cast their 
look over the struggles and griefs and turmoils of the 
ages yet unborn. The sure prospects and infallible evi- 
dences of that yet distant resurrection day were a theme 
constantly to fill the soul with joy, even amid the dis- 
tresses of the most cruel persecutions. 

But now we can say, by the words of faith, that the 
time is just at hand. Now we can say that these centuries 
of waiting have all rolled into the past, and that the day is 
impending when the great reunion of the heavenly family 
will be taken from the visions of prophecy and of faith, 
and be bestowed upon us in the literal realities of actual 
possession. That father, that mother, that sister, that 
brother, that husband, that wife, that son, that daughter, 
that bosom friend, that we have been compelled sorrow- 
fully to yield to the relentless grasp of death, is about to 
be called to life again. Our " Elder Brother," the Man 
of Nazareth, of Gethsemane, and of Calvary, is about to 
spread the great banquet of His marriage supper, and give 
us a personal introduction amid the actualities of immortal 
life, to Enoch and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, to 
Joseph and Moses and Daniel, to David and Jeremiah 



400 HEBALDS OF THE MOENING 

and Isaiah, to Matthew anjd John and Paul, and to all the 
rest of the innumerable company of the redeemed. These 
things are facts. There can be no mistake about them. 

Can you sense it? We have reached the generation 
that is witnessing the fulfilment of prophecy that makes 
these sublime events a certainty in our day. And how 
should these things call out the very best energies of our 
lives in proclaiming the message of the soon coming of 
Christ. The message is to be given in this generation. 
The time is ripe for it. God is calling for it. Every one 
who has learned to revere the Redeemer's name, and 
respect His word, should answer to the thrilling summons. 

The eternal existence of human souls is at stake. If 
there should be delay in answering to the call, thousands 
may be eternally lost as the result. When the country 
stands in peril of a foreign foe, the call to arms is made, 
and hundreds of thousands respond with the enthusiasm 
and zeal of patriots. But in such calls only matters of 
temporary, fleeting interest are at stake, and the call is 
made by only a temporary ruler. 

In this supreme and culminating conflict against the 
forces of sin our divine Father, the King who inhabiteth 
eternity, is calling us to a battle-field from which every 
volunteer (there will be no drafted soldiers) will return 
wearing the diadem of immortality. 

When freedom's cause is at stake, the call to the 
dangers and hazards of the battle-field loosen in the breast 
of the patriot the swelling and unconquerable and uncon- 
trollable emotions that rise on the solid foundation of a 
sense of duty and the undying love for the "home-land." 
But these emotions, grand as they may be, are confined 
to the narrow boundaries of this temporal existence in 



IN THIS GENERATION 401 

this temporal world. The conflict that is brought within 
the field of our vision, and in which we are urged, by 
the strong voice of these rapidly-fulfilling prophecies, to 
take an active part, breaks asunder the restricting bands 
that would confine us to time upon this earth. The issues 
that are before this generation are widened into the limit- 
less eons of eternity, and the eye is- fixed upon that un- 
numbered throng of redeemed immortals who are rising 
from the bedchamber of the tomb in response to the 
melodious command of our " Elder Brother," our Re- 
deemer, and our chosen King. 

We are not wandering in the field of fancy or imagin- 
ation as we talk of these things. We are dealing with sober 
facts that stand upon the firm foundation of the never- 
failing words of the Eternal. 

He at whose commands the worlds sprang into exist- 
ence, and took up their sweeping and infinitely accurate 
journeyings in space, is the One who has spoken. His 
word has never failed, and the more blessed truth is that 
it can not fail. These prophecies which show us where we 
are in the night of this world's devious wanderings can 
not possibly lead us astray. They are the fixed words of 
the Infinite, the All-powerful, and the Immortal, and for 
them to fail is thrust beyond the realm of even the 
twilight shadows of possibility. Then, with what as- 
surance can we repeat those words that the apostle Peter 
was inspired to write concerning this all-absorbing theme : 

"For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, 
when we made known unto you the power and coming of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of His 
majesty. For He received from God the Father honor 
and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the 

26 



402 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



excellent glory, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am 
well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven 
we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount. We 
have also a more sure word of prophecy ; whereunto ye do 
well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a 
dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in 
your hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of the 
Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the 
prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but 

holy men of God 
spake as they 
were moved by 
the Holy Ghost. " 
2 Peter 1:16-21. 
Our heavenly 
Father is the Au- 
thor of all the 
tender and lov- 
ing emotions that 
have ever swelled 
the breast of 
the most perfect 
mother or father. And with all the intensity of His 
own still higher and more constant love, He is now 
urgently inviting every one of us to be among the joy- 
ful participants in the glorious realities of the resurrec- 
tion day. He is inviting us to be the living witnesses 
of His saving grace and truth amid all the perilous times 
of these last days, and to be the ones who will stand upon 
the earth, and, without tasting death, welcome Him at 
His coming. He is inviting us to prepare the way for that 
event by joining in fulfilling that part of the prophecy 




"The exact! 
movements of the , ,, 
heavenly bodies " 
may be meas- 
ured." 



IN THIS GENERATION 



403 




which says, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached 
in all the world for a witness." What a wonderful in- 
vitation! What a great opportunity! And how do these 
things eclipse the greatest enterprises and the greatest 
opportunities that the affairs of this world can offer! 

Every one may know the positive truth of the immediate 
second coming of Christ and the impending Judgment- 
day and resurrection of the dead as definitely and as 
clearly as he knows the first rudiments of his arithmetic. 

The one is just as ___^ ___ 

clear and as sus- 
ceptible of definite 
knowledge as the 
other. We learn to 
know and fully to 
rely upon figures 
by the study of 
arithmetic and the 
other branches of 
the science of 
mathematics. Hav- 
ing studied figures until we understand them, we have no 
fears that the conclusions derived from them can have any 
possibility of error. With figures, the exact movements of 
the heavenly bodies may be calculated so that an eclipse of 
the sun or moon or the transit of another planet may be 
determined to the hundredth part of a second; with fig- 
ures, the exact location of a vessel at sea may be deter- 
mined; with figures, the civil engineer may survey a 
tunnel through a vast mountain, and set men to digging 
from both sides, and have them meet accurately; and so 
in all the field of science, or anywhere else where cal- 




"The exact location of a vessel at sea may be determined. 



404 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

culations are made, we rely upon figures to give us cor- 
rect results. 

He who gave to man the exact science of mathematics 
and endowed him with the ability to calculate with figures, 
is the same One who has also given mankind the book of 
prophecy and bidden him to "know" when the coming 
of Christ is "near, even at the doors." And just as the 
mariner can tell definitely when he is nearing port, so 
may the student of prophecy tell with even greater ac- 
curacy that the inhabitants of earth are riding on the 
swelling tides that wash the shores of the haven of eternity. 

God is now T bidding us to enter the school of prophecy, 
and to study under the accurate instruction of the inspired 
prophets. He asks us to pursue this study until we know 
for ourselves that the end of all things wrong, sinful, and 
distressing is at hand; that the Judgment-day is impend- 
ing; that the trump of God is about to sound; that the 
gates of death are about to swing outward, and release the 
captives of the tomb ; that Jesus is soon to be seen coming 
in the clouds of heaven, and all the holy angels with Him; 
that the kingdoms of this world are about to become the 
"kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ"; that the cities 
of earth will give place to the eternally glorious city of 
our God. 

Such are the inspiring and soul-absorbing facts of 
to-day. Such is the call to every one to join in the battles 
of the armies of the Lord to proclaim "this gospel of the 
kingdom in all the world for a witness unto all nations," 
so that the end may come. 

The work must be done in this generation. 




'Jesus is soon to be seen coming in the clouds of heaven, and all the holy angels with Him. 





TH&TR1UMPHANT VICTORY 



CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE 

|UR heavenly Father does not merely point out the 
dangers of the times in which we live and tell us 
what they mean, but He lifts onr minds over these 
difficulties and calamities and destructions, and fastens 
them upon the completeness of our final victory and the 
riches of our eternal reward. The sublime language of 
the Apocalypse gives a brief description of the song of 
deliverance and victory that shall be sung in that day. Of 
that time we read: "And I saw as it were a sea of glass 
mingled with fire : and them that had gotten the victory 
over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, 
and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of 
glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song 
of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, 
saying, Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God 
Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of 
saints. Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy 

406 





H 



AND EVERLASTING REWARD 




name ? for Thou only art holy : for all nations shall come 
and worship before Thee ; for Thy judgments are made 
manifest." Eev. 15:2-4. 

The scripture presented in the preceding paragraph 
reveals to us a company who have gained a great victory. 
They are seen standing with the harps of God, and, in a 
chorus too grand for human words to describe, they make 
the dome of the universe ring with their triumphant song. 
Oh, the thought of being in that chorus ! A single moment 
of that eternity of joy is worth more than all that earth 
has to offer. And the Lord has bidden that the glorious 
news shall be heralded that every one is invited to be there. 
Every precaution must be taken that no delusion shall 
overthrow us, and thus rob us of that rich reward. 

There can be no question about the fulness and the 
glory of the sure victory that is but a very short space 
ahead of every trusting, waiting child of God. It is for 
each one to decide now whether he will be in that victory, 
and reap that joy. 

407 



408 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

Having passed through the victory, we enter upon the 
reward of which the prophet has chanted: 

' ' that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, that Thou wouldest come down, 
That the mountains .might flow down at Thy presence, as when the 

melting fire burneth, 
The fire causeth the waters to boil, to make Thy name known to Thine 

adversaries, 
That the nations may tremble at Thy presence ! 
When Thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, Thou 

earnest down, 
The mountains flowed down at Thy presence. 
For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, 
Nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, 
What He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him. ' ' Isa. 64 : 1-4. 

A New Testament comment on the foregoing words of 
Isaiah reads: "It is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the 
things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. 
But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: For 
the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of 
God." 1 Cor. 2:9, 10. Man can not of himself discover 
what the Lord has in store for him in the future world. 
"But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit." 

So great is this reward that men could never gain even 
the faintest conception of it in this life, did not God reveal 
its glory through the powerfully illuminating influences of 
His Spirit. While it is understood and believed by all 
Christians that there will be perfect happiness in the 
world to come, yet all do not know what the word of 
God tells us in regard to the realities and literal joys of 
our eternal abode. We are very particular to have a 
definite and positive understanding in regard to the things 



TKIUMPHANT VICTOEY AND EVERLASTING REWARD 409 

of this life, but we do not all learn the definite truth that 
God has revealed in His word concerning the home in 
which we are to spend eternity. If men would only take 
the time to inform themselves in regard to what the Lord, 
the Creator of heaven and earth, has in store for every 
one who will stand for truth and righteousness, every 
dismal cloud would be swept away, and all the dark and 
gloomy recesses of the soul would be flooded with light 
and joy. 

We need only to give respectful and thoughtful atten- 
tion to the plain words of the Lord in order to see the 
very definite plan that He has for our future and eternal 
home. Notice the import of these following words from 
Isaiah : 

"Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: 
Ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. 
For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens ; 
God Himself that formed the earth and made it ; 
He hath established it. He created it not in vain, 
He formed it to be inhabited: 
I am the Lord; and there is none else. 
I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: 
I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me in vain : 
I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right." 
Isa. 45 : 17-19. 

The Lord tells us in the foregoing words that He 
formed the earth to be inhabited, and that He did not 
create it in vain. Every one knows that the righteous 
God did not create this earth to be inhabited by a race 
of sinners. Such a course would not be right, but God 
says, "I declare things that are right." Then we are to 
conclude that the Lord formed this earth to be inhabited 



410 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

by a race of right-doing people. He formed it to be a 
place of happiness and not a place of sorrow, as it has 
been for so many centuries. Man sinned, and for the 
time being it might seem to those who have not taken 
pains to study God's plan, that the Lord has been thwarted 
in His design. But such is not the case. All sin and every 
unrepentant sinner will be destroyed out of this earth, 
and it will be refashioned in all the perfection that clothed 
it in the beginning, and thus become the eternal abode 
of the redeemed. If the thought of this earth being 
cleansed from all sorrow and evil, and then becoming 
the eternal habitation of the redeemed, seems strange 
or fanciful to you, do not dismiss the subject too speedily, 
but study it further. You may be able to see that it is 
neither strange nor fanciful, and above all may find that 
it is decidedly scriptural. 

When God created this earth, He had a very definite 
object in view. But it seems that the problem of evil 
had to be worked out somewhere, and for causes that 
we may not be able to understand now the conflict came 
to this earth. However, before the hand of wickedness 
had been lifted here, just at the close of the Creator's 
work of making this world and placing man upon it, He 
said, "And God saw .everything that He had made, and, 
behold, it was very good." A little after this statement 
was made w£ have the record of the fall of man. After 
man had descended to sin, the Lord told him: "Cursed 
is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shaft thou eat of 
it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall 
it bring forth to thee; and thou shaft eat the herb of 
the field; in the sweat of thy face shaft thou eat bread, 
till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou 



TRIUMPHANT VICTORY AND EVERLASTING REWARD 411 

taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." 
Gen. 3:17-19. 

The record does not say that the Lord cursed man 
because he had sinned, but He cursed the ground for 
man's sake. It is to help man — or possibly it would be 
more proper to say that it is for the purpose of keeping 
man from falling so low that he could never be reached 
— that this curse is put upon the ground. For after the 
ground is cursed, mankind must contend against the thorn 
and thistle and all the rest of the tribe of weeds that they 
represent. He must now toil till his face sweats, in 
order to sustain his life. In this ceaseless round of toil 
he does not have the opportunity to sink into the vices 
and crimes that come with idleness. There is a dignity 
and power in labor that tends upward all the time. But 
it is only the perfectly right and pure man in the redeemed 
world who can be trusted with the unlimited leisure that 
would be found if there were no curse. 

Anywhere we go on the face of this earth we find the 
crop of weeds in any soil that is not closely and carefully 
cultivated. Many have wondered why it is that weeds will 
grow anywhere and everywhere spontaneously. Some 
have suggested the idea that the little birds carry the 
seed. But the simple, plain facts in the case are that 
God has said, " Cursed is the ground for thy sake," and, 
"Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." 
Hence, everywhere man goes on the face of the earth 
he must contend against the curse that a wise heavenly 
Father has placed upon the ground for his sake. That 
word that God spoke in the beginning is the scientific 
reason for the weeds springing up everywhere. It will 
continue so to be until the curse is finally removed. 



412 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

The perfectly complete manner in which this curse will 
at last be removed is told in the following New Testament 
prophecy and promise: 

"There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking 
after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise 
of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things 
continue as they were from the beginning of the crea- 
tion. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the 
word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth 
standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the 
world that then was, being overflowed with water, per- 
ished: but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by 
the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against 
the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, 
beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day 
is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand 
years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning Llis 
promise, as some men count slackness ; but is long-suffer- 
ing to usward, not willing that any should perish, but 
that all should come to repentance. But the day of the 
Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the 
heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the ele- 
ments shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and 
the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing 
then that all these things shall be dissolved, what man- 
ner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation 
and godliness, looking^or and hasting unto the coming 
of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire 
shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fer- 
vent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, 
look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look 



TRIUMPHANT VICTORY AND EVERLASTING REWARD 413 

for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him 
in peace, without spot, and blameless. ' ' 2 Peter 3 : 3-14. 

The foregoing scripture tells us that God's plan is to 
melt over this old earth, reeking beneath its curse, in the 
Judgment fires of the last day. It also tells us that un- 
godly men will go into perdition at the same time. The 
elements of the earth are to "melt with fervent heat"; 
they are to be "dissolved." While the earth is thus to 
be "dissolved" back into its original gaseous elements, it 
is said that "the works that are therein shall be burned 
up." 

But notwithstanding this melting, burning process, 
"nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new 
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. ' ' 
Fire is one of the greatest purifying agents known, and it 
is this agency that the Lord will use in purging away 
from the earth the curse of every vestige of "thorn 
and thistle"; and then out of this molten material there 
arises a new creation. God does creation's work so 
far as this world is concerned all over again ; and one 
of the grandest thoughts in connection with it is that 
all the redeemed sons and daughters of Adam will be 
eye-witnesses of the great creative scene. We will have 
passed through every trial, have come victoriously out 
of every difficulty, and at last will stand with our 
Creator while He puts our planet through its baptism of 
fire and fashions it again into the abode of eternal right- 
eousness. This is a theme that is calculated to call forth 
the liveliest and the highest forms of the imagination. 
Yet, while this is so, the theme is not an imaginative one. 
It is not the presentation of a fanciful theory. It is the 
simple setting forth of literal fact in the plain, direct 



414 



HERALDS OF THE MORNING 



language of God's own promises. To attempt to argue 
the case would not only be useless, but it might result in 
dragging a shade of obscurity over the face of one of the 
clearest as well as one of the most beautiful truths. 

Another one of the scriptures that present these new- 
earth scenes, and give these promises of joy and glo.y 
in our redeemed Eden home, is the following: 

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for tla 
first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and 
there w r as no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, 
New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, pre- 
pared as a bride adorned 
for her husband. And I 
heard a great voice out of 
heaven saying, Behold, the 
tabernacle of God is with 
men, and He will dwell with 
them, and they shall be His 
people, and God Himself shall 
be with them, and be their God. 




'T John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem." Rev. 21:2. 



TRIUMPHANT VICTORY AND EVERLASTING REWARD 415 

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and 
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, 
' neither shall there be any more pain : for the former things 
are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, 
Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, 
Write: for these words are true and faithful." Rev. 
21 : 1-5. 

Thus do the Scriptures in multiplied passages bring 
before us the new heavens and the new earth. And thus 
do they show that the "restitution of all things, which 
God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets 
since the world began/' will include the renewing of the 
earth, its cleansing from sin, and its presentation to the 
redeemed as their eternal home. The beautiful Eden that 
was lost through sin will also be restored through the 
redemptive work of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Then will 
come the glorious realization of that other scene viewed 
by the apostle John on Patmos, and thus described by 
him: "And I saw, and I heard a voice of many angels 
round about the throne and the living creatures and the 
elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times 
ten thousand, and thousands of thousands ; saying with a 
great voice, Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to 
receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and 
honor, and glory, and blessing. And every created thing 
which is in the heaven, and on the earth, and under the 
earth, and on the sea, and all things that are in them, heard 
I saying, Unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto 
the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honor, and the glory, 
and the dominion, forever and ever." Rev. 5:11-13. It 
is said of those who join in this indescribable anthem of 
victory that "they reign on the earth." This triumphant 



416 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

chorus of praise to the Majesty of heaven takes place at 
a time when there is not a discordant note of sin in all the 
great universe of God. "Every created thing" engages 
in the song with heart, and soul, and mind. 

What a thrill of joy is awakened at the thought of 
being there! No soul on earth can afford to miss such 
an opportunity. Who can afford to slight the invitation 
that the Lord has so graciously extended to " every crea- 
ture"? When this old earth shall be dissolved, and when 
every particle of sin is burned out of it, and when the 
new heaven and the new earth shall come forth out of the 
molten and purified elements, and when all the immortal 
beauty of this new creation shall be unfolded in the 
presence of the redeemed, and under the unobstructed gaze 
of their immortal eyes, if we are not there to join in the 
shouts of joy and triumph, how^ terrible will be our ever- 
lasting mistake and our everlasting loss! 

The substantial reward that is before the truly loyal 
followers of Christ can be but feebly described by any 
human instrumentality. The Spirit that searcheth the 
deep things of God must be sought for our illuminating 
guide. 

The most beautiful spot on the whole face of this 
earth has some tracings of the curse upon it to mar its 
present beauty so that the mind may be directed to the 
faultless splendor of Eden redeemed. Our God would not 
have us fix our affections on the passing things of this 
life or of this world, but would have us see and lay hold 
on that which will endure forever. With these clear 
promises of the redeeming of the earth before us, let us 
turn to that wonderful prophetic description of what its 
redeemed conditions will be ; and, as we read it, let us ask 



TRIUMPHANT VICTORY AND EVERLASTING REWARD 417 

that God's Spirit may make a living picture of its every 
expression upon the sensitized films of our souls. The de- 
scription of the earth* in its redeemed condition is in the 
language of Isaiah, and reads: 

' ' The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them ; and the 

desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. 
It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: 
The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel 

and Sharon, 
They shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. 
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. 
Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: 
Behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recom- 
pense; He will come and save you. 
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf 

shall be unstopped. 
Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the 

dumb sing: 
For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. 
And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land 

springs of water: 
In the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds 

and rushes. 
And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The 

way of holiness ; 
The unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: 
The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. 
No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, 

it shall not be found there ; 
But the redeemed shall walk there: and the ransomed of the Lord 

shall return, 
And come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads : 
They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee 
away." Isaiah 35. 
27L- 



418 HERALDS OF THE MORNING 

The foregoing is a description of the new earth when 
the " ransomed of the Lord" have entered it with " ever- 
lasting joy upon their heads." And when that time 
comes, all the glory of the far-famed forests of Lebanon 
shall be given to it, and all the blossoming and fragrant 
splendor of Carmel and Sharon shall be drawn upon to 
transform every desert and miasmic bog into the pic- 
tured realities of the fields and gardens of eternity. And 
then every blind eye is opened, so that it may catch the 
indescribable beauty, and every deaf ear is made to hear, 
so that it may revel in the exultant harmonies and melodies, 
as choir and soloist shall rise to the exalted heights of ex- 
pressing in the eloquence of sound the impulses that are 
too sublime for words. Amid these scenes of the rejoi- 
cings of the immortal and redeemed, there can be found 
no speechless tongue; and no defective limb will offer 
obstruction to the poetic expression of bodily motion when 
every nerve is vibrating its symphonies at the thought of 
actually being in the New Jerusalem, the capital of the 
universe, and the metropolis of the earth made new. 

Before these eternal realities that our heavenly Father 
offers us, all the wealth that this present world can give is 
transformed into the most beggarly poverty. 

As we look upon the earth, we see distress, perplexity, 
and unsatisfying prospects. We see, fulfilled in the proph- 
ecy of what the Master told us would take place in those 
days, " men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking 
after those things which are coming on the earth." This 
distressed condition is all that earth has to offer; but if 
we take the telescope of prophecy and divinely inspired 
promise, and look beyond these scenes of the closing days 
of time over into the fair domains of our heavenly Father, 



TRIUMPHANT VICTORY AND EVERLASTING REWARD 419 

we see the "New Jerusalem, coming down from God out 
of heaven;" we see the hand of Omnipotence giving our 
earth its purifying ablution of fire. Out of this curse- 
destroying crucible we see the work of creation bringing 
back to mankind its perfect new earth in the vernal fresh- 
ness and matchless beauty of the blossoming and perfumed 
splendors of Eden; and finally we see our redeemed and 
re-created planet swinging anew into her trackless high- 
way of space, peopled by the happy creatures who are 
settling themselves into the undimmed pleasures and 
occupations of their eternal existence. 

"We having the same spirit of faith, according as it 
is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we 
also believe, and therefore speak; knowing that He which 
raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, 
and shall present us with you. For all things are for your 
sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanks- 
giving of many redound to the glory of God. For which 
cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, 
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our 
light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us 
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while 
we look not at the things which are seen, but at the 
things which are not seen: for the things which are 
seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are 
eternal. ' ' 



Patriarchs 

</ Prophets 



an 



Or the Great Controversy Between Good 

and Evil, as Illustrated in the Lives 

of the Holy Men of Old 



This book treats upon the themes of Bible history — themes not in 
themselves new, but so presented here as to give them a new signifi- 
cance. Beginning with the rebellion* in heaven, the author shows why 
sin was permitted, why Satan was not destroyed, and why man was 
tested ; gives a thrilling description of man's temptation and fall, and 
rehearses the plan of salvation. The life of each of the Patriarchs from 
Adam to King David is carefully scanned, and from each a lesson is 
drawn. 

The deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the incidents of their forty 
years' wanderings, the building of the sanctuary, the entrance into 
Canaan, the subjection of the land, and the continued history of the 
Israelite nation down to the close of David's reign are all related in an 
interesting, narrative style that charms the reader and opens up to him 
new beauties in the scriptural record. 

The book contains 825 octavo pages, and is illustrated with 148 fine 
engravings, 38 of them being full-page. 

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THE GREAT 
CONTROVERSY 



BETWEEN CHRIST AND SATAN DUR- 
ING THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION 

By MRS. E. G. WHITE 

nPHIS volume presents the most wonderful and in- 
■*• tensely interesting history that has ever been written 
of the great conflict between Christianity and the pow- 
ers of darkness, as illustrated in the lives of Christian 
martyrs and reformers on the one hand, and of wicked 
men and persecuting powers on the other. Beginning 
with our Lord's great prophecy given while viewing 
Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, this book outlines 
the history of the whole dispensation down to the time 
when " sin and sinners are no more; God's entire uni- 
verse is clean; and the great controversy is forever 
ended." This remarkable book contains about 800 
pages, 42 illustrated chapter headings, and 40 full-page 
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